Michel Lafranceschina

Michel Lafranceschina
Personnel
birthday	February 28, 1939
place of birth	Fontaine ,  France
size	160 cm
position	striker
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1956-1958	FC Grenoble	51 (20)
1958–1962	RC Lens	122 (46)
1962-1965	Lille OSC	62 (27)
1965-1966	FC Sochaux	41 (24)
1966-1967	SC Toulon	18 0(5)
1967-1970	Limoges FC	88 (26)
1970-1971	Bourges FC	11 0(1)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1980-1981	FC Grenoble
1981-1986	FC Grenoble B
1986	FC Grenoble
1 Only league games are given.

Michel Lafranceschina (born February 28, 1939 in Fontaine , Département Isère ) is a former French football player and later coach .

Player career

Lafranceschina grew up near Grenoble and was accepted into the youth department of FC Grenoble ; he was 17 years old when he made the leap to the club's second division team in 1956. There he came to regular appearances from the start and scored nine goals in his first season in the senior division. This earned him a participation in the 1957 UEFA youth tournament with the French U-19 team, with his country taking third place. Then he finally made the leap to a regular within the club and was able to increase his number of hits to eleven; in this way he aroused the interest of several first division clubs.

It was RC Lens who signed the player in 1958 and made it possible for him to make the leap to the top French league. In the first division he was on the offensive behind the tips Maryan Wisnieski , Ahmed Oudjani and Michel Stievenard as a regular and scored eleven goals, although his club played against relegation. Because the club signed the Austrian Friedrich Kominek in 1959 , Lafranceschina had to fight for his place in the team until his departure a year later; then he became a permanent part of the team with which he won the Coupe Charles Drago in 1959 and 1960 . In the course of the 1961/62 season he hit the gate twenty times, which earned him third place in the top scorer list.

Despite his success in front of goal, he decided to move into the second division in 1962 when he received an offer from OSC Lille and thus local rivals from Lens. With Lille he failed first to rise, but contributed twelve goals in 22 games during the 1963/64 season and thus helped his club to the second division championship, which also brought promotion with it. However, this brought the commitment of Rolland Ehrhardt as well as the integration of the young Claude Andrien into the team, so that Lafranceschina no longer played a major role.

In 1965 he turned his back on Lille, but stayed in the first division thanks to his move to FC Sochaux . For Sochaux, he scored 22 times in his first year there, which made him the best scorer of his career, but remained far from the title of top scorer due to Philippe Gondet's 36 goals . Nevertheless, the club brought in Maryan Wisnieski, who had already been with Lens Lafranceschina's team-mate, a new striker who largely ousted the successful goalscorer of the previous season. In view of this, Lafranceschina decided in December 1966 to move to the second division club SC Toulon .

Even if he had a regular place at Toulon, he did not stay beyond the end of the 1966/67 season, but signed at that time with relegation-threatened second division FC Limoges . Despite a smaller number of own goals, he held the club in 1968 in the second division and scored a total of 16 goals in the season 1968/69, which he contributed to fourth place in the table for Limoges. Then he lost his regular place and also had to accept relegation as bottom of the table, which is why he left the club in 1970. In FC Bourges he found a second division team as an employer, but mostly sat on the bench. In view of this, he decided in 1971 at the age of 32 after 170 first division games with 73 goals and 223 second division games with 78 goals to end his active career.

Coaching career

Initially, Lafranceschina did not take on any other function in football, but returned to the sport when he was hired as a coach by his ex-club Grenoble in 1980. He was able to keep the previously promoted team in the second division; however, he did not extend his contract in 1981 and instead devoted himself to training the club's reserve team. When the club faced relegation to the third division, the former professional was promoted again to coach of the first selection in January 1986. He failed to save the team from relegation, after which he ended his coaching career in the summer of 1986.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michel Lafranceschina  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , afterfooot.fr  
2. ↑ Football: Michel Lafranceschina , footballdatabase.eu