Jean Baratte

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Jean Baratte in 1949

Jean Baratte (born June 7, 1923 in Lambersart , North Department , † July 1, 1986 in Faumont , North Department) was a French football player and coach . Up to the present day he is considered the most popular player from the Lille region and the epitome of the “British” style of football that was cultivated in northern France's mining and industrial district until the 1960s .

Player career

In the club

The innkeeper's son was born and raised in a small town on the outskirts of Lilles, where he learned to play football at the traditional Iris Club . The inner striker was not yet 17 when the German Wehrmacht invaded France . The area on the Belgian border, like large parts of the country, was occupied by the Germans, and in this region (the zone interdite , i.e. the "forbidden zone"), particularly strict martial law rules meant that an orderly game operation was initially no longer necessary was to be thought. In 1941 the Iris Club, which had run into economic difficulties, merged with local rivals Olympique, and from that point on Jean Baratte belonged to the Olympique Iris Club Lillois ; However, this did not mean a major change for him as the stadiums of the two clubs were only 300 meters apart. The clubs from the far north were still not allowed to play for points until 1942, and in the national cup OICL regularly failed in the zone finals against local rivals SC Fivois or the neighboring towns of Racing Lens . In the 1943/44 season, instead of the clubs, regional national teams played for the championship in France again in the nationwide Division 1 , and here Baratte and his Équipe fédérale Lille-Flandres finished the points round as second in the table - again they were now Équipe fédérale Lens -Artois trading rivals a little more successful, although Lille had a second top-class striker in their ranks with René Bihel . In 1944 the experiment with the selection teams ended, but it had ensured that the other Liller first division, the SC Fivois, had to cancel the sails for economic reasons and merge with the OICL; the new club was called Lille Olympique SC or LOSC for short. In just three years, Jean Baratte wore his fourth jersey without having to change clubs once.

Jean Baratte was rather small, but of strong stature, extremely dangerous for goals and an incredible fighter who never lost a ball, whereby he benefited from his permanent will to win, his excellent condition and his absolutely professional attitude, which he was nicknamed Capitaine Courageux (German : "Captain Brave") registered. He was also not too bad to take up the unfamiliar goalkeeping position when the OSC regular goalkeeper injured himself in the cup semi-final in 1952 (1: 2 n. V. against Girondins Bordeaux ).

After the end of the war, the game quickly returned to normal, and for Baratte, who had also been appointed to the national team for the first time at the end of 1944, success followed success: in the 1945/46 season he became French champions with his LOSC, to which he contributed 19 goals had (6th place on the list of goalscorers), and after a 4-2 final win against Red Star Paris also cup winners (no Baratte goal in the final). In 1946/47, winning the cup again and 28 personal league goals (3rd place in the scoring category) compensated for the somewhat weaker performance in the championship ("only" 4th place). In 1947/48, the storm tank won the top scorer's crown in Division 1 - it netted 31 times in 34 games -, was runner-up and cup winner for the third time in a row; this time he also scored two goals in the final, which Lille won 3-2 against arch rivals from Lens.

In the next four years the LOSC had to make do with the runner-up championship three times in a row, in 1951/52 even only with 3rd place and also only reached the final in the cup (1949), in which Racing Paris dominated 5-2. Jean Baratte, however , was again top scorer of the league in 1948/49, together with "Pepi" Humpál from FC Sochaux (26 goals) and was also in 1949/50 (2nd, 22 goals) and 1950/51 (8th, 19 goals) very effective. In 1951 he was also in the final for the Coupe Latine , in which Lille had no chance against AC Milan .
1951/52, however, with André Strappe (20 goals this season), the Dane Erik Kuld Jensen (14 times successful) and Jean Vincent, for the first time in many years, three younger "crown princes" contested the leadership in the LOSC attack seriously. The 1952/53 season brought Lille at least one title again: only fourth in the league, Jean Baratte and his club won the trophy for the fourth time, even though he was again empty-handed in the 2-1 win against FC Nancy .

However, this last triumph was followed by his bitterest moment: after only four game days of the subsequent 1953/54 season he sold “his” OSC to the second division AS Aix - the players had practically no influence on such deals at the time - and had to come from the far south of France the deported Capitaine Courageux watch how the club was rewarded for this ingratitude with the championship. In this summer of 1954 Baratte returned to the north, but his new employer was CO Roubaix-Tourcoing , and he had to leave the top division at the end of the season. The now 33-year-old also played in the second division for another year for CORT, but how much he was attached to LOSC became apparent twelve months later: in 1956 Jean Baratte moved from Roubaix to the neighboring city ... to Lille Olympique SC, which had just got off the D2. Even with Baratte's help, the LOSC managed to get back up immediately, so that it was once again of use to the club where he had played for a total of 13 years; When the return to the football upper house was determined, Jean Baratte hung his boots on the nail.

Stations

  • Iris Club Lillois (until 1941)
  • Olympique Iris Club Lillois (1941–1943)
  • Équipe fédérale Lille-Flandres (1943/44)
  • Lille Olympique SC (1944-September 1953)
  • Association Sportive Aixoise (September 1953–1954)
  • Club Olympique Roubaix-Tourcoing (1954–1956, including 1955/56 in D2)
  • Lille Olympique SC (1956/57, in D2)

In the national team

Between December 1944 and November 1952, Jean Baratte played 32 games for the French national team and scored 19 goals at international level. In a dozen international matches, he also led the Équipe tricolore as team captain on the field, including in the 2-2 in October 1951 at Wembley against England .
His professionalism was also evident in this group: when the sélectionneur Gaston Barreau, who was responsible for the line-up of the national team, half jokingly asked him about his weight on the eve of an international match in 1949, Baratte appeared at the next encounter, 14 days later, with 5 kg less on his ribs in the stadium - and although the Bleus suffered a severe defeat at home in this game (1: 5 against Spain ), he, who also scored the consolation goal , was the only Frenchman to receive good reviews. And when, in October 1952, the day before an international match against Germany , he learned that the coach intended to replace him with a debutant named Kopa , Baratte is said to have burst into tears.

The trainer

Baratte had already in the second half of the 1954/55 season as a player-coach at CO Roubaix-Tourcoing gained first, albeit unsuccessful, experience with his future role off the pitch. From the end of the 1950s, he first trained the Union Sportive Armentières, then the SK Roeselare from Belgium, although this station was only a stone's throw from his French place of residence. In the 1961/62 season he returned to his old place of work at Lille OSC ; However, the team failed to move up to Division 1. He then moved abroad again, this time to Tunis (which club cannot yet be determined) - but like nine years earlier, the Nordist felt uncomfortable in the Mediterranean, and it followed further engagements with clubs from the immediate home area, namely the Racing Club Lillois, from 1966 to 1968 the US Tourcoing , then Racing Arras , Sporting Abbeville and Olympique Marcquois. In the top division, however, none of these clubs was represented.

Life after football

Baratte then ran a small hotel and a café-restaurant, also this, like almost all of his life, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region . The father of three sons, only 63 years old, died there in 1986.

Palmarès (as a player)

literature

  • Hubert Beaudet: La Coupe de France. Ses vainqueurs, ses surprises. Alan Sutton, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire 2003 ISBN 2-84253-958-3 .
  • Denis Chaumier: Les Bleus. Tous les joueurs de l'équipe de France de 1904 à nos jours. Larousse, o. O. 2004 ISBN 2-03-505420-6 .
  • Paul Hurseau / Jacques Verhaeghe: Les immortels du football nordiste. Alan Sutton, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire 2003 ISBN 2-84253-867-6 .

Remarks

  1. ^ Jean-Philippe Rethacker / Jacques Thibert: La fabuleuse histoire du football. Minerva, Genève 1996, 2003 2 ISBN 978-2-8307-0661-1 , p. 215

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Baratte, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Lambersart , North Department
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1986
Place of death Faumont , North Department