Julien Darui

Julien Darui in 1947

Julien Darui (born February 16, 1916 in Oberkorn , Luxembourg , † December 13, 1987 ) was a French football player .

The club career

Growing up in Lorraine during the First World War , the goalkeeper began his career with the senior citizens in Charleville near the Belgian-French border with the OFC there . In Darui's first year (1935/36), the lower-class club reached the cup final with only one goal conceded after victories over the first division clubs AS Cannes , Excelsior AC Roubaix and Red Star Paris . The basis for the outsider's success was the solid defense, behind which there was a goalkeeper, Darui, who was just 20 years old, who - like his great role model Pierre Chayriguès - bravely threw himself at the feet of opponents with the ball and with spectacular saves, especially because of his unrestricted "air sovereignty " in the penalty area (defense against fists), drew sustained attention. Charleville lost the final against Racing Paris , which was also first in Division 1 , but only received a single goal against this strong team.

A year later, Darui himself played in France's elite league and ended the seasons twice in the front midfield with Olympique Lillois . In the meantime he had become the defining figure not only in his own penalty area. He was able to organize his back team loudly (today a basic qualification for top goalkeepers, at that time still the absolute exception) and also caused surprise moments in the game when he dropped balls that hit his goal sharply and precisely to his own attackers fit beyond the center line. In 1939 he was again in the cup final with Lille - and lost it again to Racing Paris. In the same year he was appointed to the national team for the first time . The war and German occupation meant that his career was interrupted afterwards: from 1939 to 1945 there was no national championship anymore, and since Lille was also in the "forbidden zone", Olympique could not even take part in the three (later two) take part in war championships held in regional relays; therefore Julien Darui moved to the capital club Red Star in 1940 , where he was champion of the North Zone in 1940/41 and in 1942 was in the cup final for the third time (this Coupe de France was, with a different mode, also held during the occupation). This time Darui was on the right side and won the cup because he did not allow a goal against FC Sète .

Darui (dark shirt) in the 1939 cup final

Nevertheless, he went back to this title to Lille, where he played for three differently named teams over the next three years. In 1942/43 and 1944/45 this was only due to two mergers between Olympique (with Iris Club and SC Fives ) and their respective renaming, while professionalism was banned in France in 1943/44 and the championship was only in one national season, but was not played by clubs, but by regional national teams ( Équipes Fédérales ). The Équipe Fédérale Lille-Flandres with Darui in goal was behind the É.F. Lens-Artois runner-up. 1945 - France had meanwhile been liberated - he was in his fourth cup final with Lille OSC, left the stadium as a loser for the third time - and for the third time the winner was against Darui's Team Racing Paris.

For the 1945/46 season, the goalkeeper moved to the neighboring CO Roubaix-Tourcoing , with whom he finished 3rd in the championship. After changing clubs, his former Lillois were both French champions and cup winners in 1946. His new club won the championship itself the following year, with the back team he directed being the basis of success, because CORT conceded the second fewest goals against the 20 championship participants. The club could not repeat this success during the following years, in which Julien Darui was still playing in the northern industrial area , not even under the (from 1949) player-coach Darui. In 1953 he moved to the second division SO Montpelliérain in the same function and then finally ended his club career.

Stations

• Olympique FC Charleville (1935-1937)
• Olympique Lillois (1937-1940)
• Red Star Paris (1940-1942)
• Olympique Iris Club Lillois, renamed Lille Olympique Sporting Club from 1944 (1942–1945; 1943/44 as Équipe Fédérale Lille-Flandres)
• Club Olympique Roubaix-Tourcoing (1945–1953, from 1949 as player-coach)
• Stade Olympique Montpelliérain (1953/54, as player-coach)

The national player

Between March 1939 and May 1951 Julien Darui, who was already part of the French squad at the 1938 World Cup , played a total of 25 times in the Équipe Tricolore ; He played five of these games while he was under contract with Lille, two for Red Star and 20 for CO Roubaix-Tourcoing. He was the team captain five times.

Like many others, the war cost the undisputed number one of the Bleus a significantly larger number of international missions: from March to May 1939 he scored three goals; at the next international match in early 1940, the Austro-French Rodolphe Hiden was given preference. In the next five years only two internationals took place (both with Darui), and from spring 1945 to autumn 1948 he played in 18 of the 19 internationals. His last two games followed in the spring of 1951. In a game against Scotland (1947) he was also between the posts for the European selection.

Life after the active time

With the work as a football coach , which began in 1949 , Darui could not earn any great merits: after Montpellier he trained in 1954/1955 Olympique Lyon (12th place) and in 1959/1960 the lower class CL Dijon . In between, the ex-national player produced headlines again with performances at the Jean Richard circus as a daring acrobat . Julien Darui had been running a café- bar-tabac in Dijon since the early 1960s .

Palmarès

• French champion : 1947 (with Roubaix-Tourcoing), also 1941 champion of the north zone (with Red Star; no official national champion title) and 1944 runner-up (with ÉF Lille-Flandres)
• French cup winner : 1942 (with Red Star), also finalist in 1936 (with Charleville), 1939 and 1945 (with Lille)
• 25 senior internationals for France
• 2nd place in France Football's leaderboard for French goalkeepers (October 2006)