Paul Baron

Paul Baron (born May 23, 1895 in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés ; † 1973 ) was a French football player and coach who won titles in the French cup competition in both functions .

Player career

Paul Baron first played for VGA Saint-Maur in his place of birth and then - whether immediately afterwards or not until the end of the 1920s - for AS Française . After the World War , he joined Olympique Paris , one of the major clubs in the capital , in 1920 . With the Olympics , which had just won the city championship shortly before, he reached the final of the national cup in 1921 , which, however, was lost 1: 2 to local rivals Red Star AC . In this most important football competition in France - a uniform, national championship did not exist until 1932 - he reached the semi-finals in 1922, 1923 and 1925, where Olympique then had to give up. During this time, the tall, angular side runner also played an A international match for France ; in the 2-2 draw against Switzerland in April 1923, he was set up in a defense formed exclusively from players from Red Star ( Pierre Chayriguès , Lucien Gamblin , Robert Joyaut , François Hugues and Philippe Bonnardel ). After the game, accusations were raised in public that Baron and Joyaut in particular were responsible for the two goals. Therefore this was his only appearance in the national dress.

When the two rival clubs merged in 1926, Paul Baron also played in the first team of the club, now trading as Red Star Olympique . Two years later he reached the cup final with her again , and this time he was one of the eleven winners of the victory trophy who prevailed against CA Paris ; Incidentally, it was the only final in which the players actually wore a red star on their jerseys. However, Baron's performance in this game should not have convinced too much, as Gabriel Hanot subsequently criticized in the Miroir des Sports :

"The outside runner Baron was not only outdone by [his opponent] Gautheroux , but was also very weak both in defending his half of the field and in supporting his strikers [...], as he did against Stade Français [in the semifinals]."

Baron may have left the club shortly after winning this title; What is certain is that from 1930 he still laced his football boots for the Racing Club de France , but ended his playing career in 1932 when Racing was accepted into the newly founded professional league .

Coaching career

From 1933 Paul Baron worked as a trainer, again for Red Star Olympique, who for season 1934/35 in the Division 1 had returned, under his leadership, but showed only mediocre performance, but still reached the semifinals in the Cup. In 1935 the coach settled in the Algerian part of French North Africa , where he worked for AS Saint-Eugène until shortly before the end of the Second World War . In 1944, after the liberation of Paris, he returned to the capital, took over the training of the Racing Paris league team and made a name for himself there as an "outstanding tactician who created an independent and very successful style of play". This included, in particular, the move known as the tourbillon (“cyclone”) to cast his strikers permanently during the game, i.e. to change their positions. Parallel to his club activities, the French association also appointed Baron as physical and tactical coach of the senior national team in the late 1940s, albeit - like his successors until 1964 - without authorization to set up the team, and he retained this function until the turn of the year 1950/1951 held.

With his club team, Paul Baron was only in the middle of the table until 1952 - the best place was sixth (1948/49) - but things went much better in the cup: Racing reached the final three times and won two of them. Before the first in 1945 , he had to build a new team around a few old hands from the pre-war period like Dupuis , Heisserer and “Gusti” Jordan ; He benefited from his years in Algeria, because he had brought along a number of pied noirs or members of the air forces stationed there, five of which ( Salva from Saint-Eugène, Samuel, Jasseron , Philippot and Ponsetti) were in the team won the final 3-0 against Lille OSC . He then developed the team further, and in the team that won the final in 1949 - again against Lille, this time 5-2 - there were only two players from 1945. Twelve months later, Baron was again in the coaching bench at the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir , but this time the final ended with a victory for Racing's opponent, Stade Reims , who prevailed 2-0, albeit only in the final phase.

1954 returned Baron again for AS Saint-Eugène and remained there - during the Algerian war  - until 1956. In the season 1956/57 he oversaw the team of Red Star, which had a very weak year, however, and as the Table of the second division the Class could only hold due to an increase in the field of participants, stayed there for another year and returned to Saint-Ouen again in 1960/61 . He also trained AS Cannes in 1958/59 and Racing Paris again in 1964/65. After all, he was also briefly responsible for the national teams of Haiti (1953/54) and Greece (1959/60). During this time, the Greeks have only played two official A internationals, both of which they lost to Denmark ; in the 0: 3 against West Germany at the end of November 1960, Baron was no longer in office.

Palmarès

as a player

• French cup winner: 1928 (and finalist 1921)
• 1 international match for France

as a trainer

• French cup winner: 1945, 1949 (and finalist 1950)

literature

• 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
• Jean Cornu: Les grandes equipes françaises de football. Famot, Genève 1978
• L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004, ISBN 2-951-96053-0
• L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: Coupe de France. La folle épopée. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2007, ISBN 978-2-915-53562-4
• François de Montvalon / Frédéric Lombard / Joël Simon: Red Star. Histoires d'un siècle. Club du Red Star, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-95125-620-5
• Jean-Philippe Rethacker / Jacques Thibert: La fabuleuse histoire du football. Minerva, Genève 2003², ISBN 978-2-8307-0661-1

Web links

• Player information sheet Barons on the website of the French Football Association

Notes and evidence

1. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, Coupe de France, p. 337
2. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, La belle histoire, p. 296
3. ↑ ^{a b} Chaumier, p. 28
4. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, Coupe de France, p. 344
5. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, Coupe de France, p. 115
6. ↑ Article “Le Red Star gagne, devant 25,000 spectateurs, la Coupe de France de football sur le CA Paris, très malchanceux” from Le Miroir des Sports , 425th edition, p. 297, facsimile in de Montvalon / Lombard / Simon, p 60/61.
7. ↑ so at least de Montvalon / Lombard / Simon, p. 272
8. ↑ de Montvalon / Lombard / Simon, p. 68
9. ↑ Cornu, p. 106; Rethacker / Thibert, p. 191
10. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, La belle histoire, pp. 309 and 311
11. ^ Rethacker / Thibert, p. 176
12. ↑ Cornu, p. 105
13. ↑ according to Baron's data sheet on footballdatabase.eu