Jules Vandooren

Vandooren (right) in the 1939 cup final

Jules Vandooren (born December 30, 1908 in Armentières , Département Nord , † January 7, 1985 in Calais ) was a French football player and coach .

The player career

In the club

The tall right defender Jules Vandooren is still considered the epitome of very "British" football, which was cultivated in the period between the world wars, especially in the heavily industrialized north of France: technically not exactly gifted, but a tough and fair defender who rarely crosses the middle line crossed and consistently pushed the ball out of the danger zone with long strokes - an extraordinarily difficult rock in defense for his opponents. At the age of 18, Olympique Lillois signed him , where he quickly secured a regular place and almost six years later had to be counted among the greats of his profession: with Lille he became French straight away in 1932/33 in the newly founded professional league, Division 1 Champion and appointed to the national team for the first time a few weeks before the end of the season . In the following years Vandooren always played with Lille in the top half of the table, was runner-up in 1936 and was also in the final of the French Cup in 1939 .

After the occupation of France by the German Wehrmacht , the north of the country belonged to the "forbidden zone", which also resulted in considerable restrictions on sports activities. Therefore, Jules Vandooren moved to Red Star Paris , where he won the 1941 only unofficial title of master of the North Zone , and then as a player-coach at Stade de Reims , with whom he was able to repeat this success in 1942. In the same year he played two international matches after a long war-related break; In 1943 he ended his playing career.

Stations

• US Pérenchies and JA Armentières (as a youth)
• Olympique Lillois (1927-1939)
• Red Star Paris (1939-1941)
• Stade de Reims (1941–1943, as player-coach)

The national player

Between February 1933 and March 1942, Jules Vandooren played 22 international matches for the Équipe Tricolore (20 in his time at Lille, 2 at Reims) and wore the captain's armband three times. Together with Étienne Mattler from Sochaux in the 1930s, he formed a pair of defenders that are still legendary in the Hexagon today and that were called up at the World Championships in 1934 and 1938 - in 1934, however, Vandooren was still suffering from the consequences of an injury and in 1938 the association's selection committee decided in favor of the Competitors Héctor Cazenave , so that he remained in both World Cup finals without use.

The trainer

After his first steps as a player-coach in Reims , he looked after the amateur club Arago Sport Orléans until 1948 , from 1949 SM Caen , La Gantoise Gent (Belgium) and from 1959 to 1961 his long-standing club Lille Olympique, which had just been relegated to the second division. This was followed by engagements as national coach for Senegal (1961–1963), at UA Sedan-Torcy (1963/64) and again in Orléans. There are contradicting statements in the sources about other coaching stations. In the 1970s , Jules Vandooren retired in Calais , where he died a few days after his 76th birthday.

Palmarès (as a player)

• French champion : 1933 (and champion of the North Zone in 1941 with Red Star and 1942 with Reims)
• French cup winner : Neither (but finalist 1939)
• 22 international caps; World Cup participants in 1934 and 1938

literature

• Jean Cornu: Les grandes equipes françaises de football. Famot, Genève 1978
• Pascal Grégoire-Boutreau / Tony Verbicaro: Stade de Reims - une histoire sans fin. Cahiers intempestifs, Saint-Étienne 2001 ISBN 2-911698-21-5
• Michel Hubert / Jacques Pernet: Stade de Reims. Sa legend. Atelier Graphique, Reims 1992 ISBN 2-9506272-2-6
• Paul Hurseau / Jacques Verhaeghe: Les immortels du football nordiste. Alan Sutton, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire 2003 ISBN 2-84253-867-6
• L'Équipe (ed.): Stade de Reims. Un club à la Une. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2006 ISBN 2-915535-41-8
• Lucien Perpère / Victor Sinet / Louis Tanguy: Reims de nos amours. 1931/1981 - 50 ans de Stade de Reims. Alphabet Cube, Reims 1981
• Jacques and Thomas Poncelet: Supporters du Stade de Reims 1935-2005. Self-published, Reims 2005 ISBN 2-9525704-0-X