Pierre Sinibaldi

Pierre Sinibaldi (born February 29, 1924 in Montemaggiore , Haute-Corse department , † January 24, 2012 in Toulon ) was a French football player and coach .

The player career

In the club

In the middle of World War II , Sinibaldi's family came to Champagne , where Pierre initially played football at AS Troyes . In 1944 he moved to Stade de Reims , where in his first year he scored 30 of the 70 goals of his team, which finished fourth in the northern group of this "war championship". When, after the liberation of France, a regular national championship could be held in a single-track Division 1 , he was an integral part of the Rémois' regular eleven and was one of the core players who gave this "provincial club" absolute dominance in France for almost 20 years Professional football. Pierre Sinibaldi was an enormously dangerous striker , but not a "breaker", but one who was characterized by elegance and playful finesse. In 1945/46 (26 goals) and 1947/48 (25 goals) he was second in the list of goalscorers , in 1946/47 (33 goals) he even landed in first place. Behind Fontaine , but ahead of Bianchi , Piantoni , Appel , Bliard , Kopa , Vincent , Flamion , Glovacki and others he is in the "eternal D1 goalscorer list" of Stade Reims second. In 1949 he became French champions with the Red and Whites - and that together with his brothers Paul (regular goalkeeper until 1956) and Noël (only a dozen appearances for the club this year) - and in 1950 he was also a cup winner . In the following two years he was used relatively rarely, but after he was able to play regularly again in 1952/53, he contributed another 11 goals to Reims' second league title. He then moved to FC Nantes in Division 2 (second division), in 1954 to the first division Olympique Lyon , where he was only used in a single point game.

Stations

• AS Troyes-Savinienne (until 1944)
• Stade de Reims (1944–1953)
• FC Nantes (1953/54)
• Olympique Lyon (1954/55)

The national player

In May 1946 (in the surprising 2: 1 over England ) and in October 1948 (3: 3 against Belgium ) Pierre Sinibaldi each played once in the Equipe Tricolore , but remained there without scoring.

The coaching career

After playing as a player, Pierre Sinibaldi moved to the coaching chair; The handwriting of his former teammate and trainer Albert Batteux was soon to be felt. Although Sinibaldi was at least as successful in this new role as he was as a player, it is not easy to fully reconstruct his career in this regard, especially since even the official websites of his clubs contradict each other with regard to the year information. From 1956 until his license was withdrawn in 1959, he was in charge of the second division of FC Perpignan , after which Sinibaldi was Luxembourg national coach . Like the UEFA wrote in its assessment Sinibaldis on their official website, he was one of the first coach who his defenders from the Mann on the zone defense Ground surrounded.

After the Luxembourg station he was signed by the top Belgian club RSC Anderlecht , with whom he was national champion four times (according to other sources even five times), probably in 1962, certainly in 1964, 1965 and 1966; The fact that he was coach at AS Monaco from the summer of 1966 and was prematurely dismissed there in December 1968 speaks against the statement repeatedly found on the web that he also became champions there in 1967 and 1968 . In the 1969/70 season Sinibaldi worked again for Anderlecht and reached the finals of the European Fair Cup with the RSC, which were then narrowly lost (3: 1 and 0: 3) against Arsenal FC . During this time, a particularly memorable event for the native Corsican also falls: two days before his 43rd birthday, he put together a team of Corsican players who played a preparatory game against the French senior team supervised by Just Fontaine , which resulted in a 2: 0 victory of his island selection ended and makes February 27, 1967 a "historic date" for separatist Corsicans to this day.

In the 1970s , Pierre Sinibaldi moved to Spain , where he coached the first division clubs UD Las Palmas and Sporting Gijón . 1976 to 1978 he trained in France ESCN La Ciotat , 1979/80 with the second division Sporting Toulon again a French professional team. Later, the two-time international, who also won a match against the Bleus in 1967 , settled in Toulon .

Pierre Sinibaldi died in January 2012, shortly before his 88th birthday.

Stations

• FC Perpignan (1956-1959)
• National coach of Luxembourg (1959/60)
• RSC Anderlecht (1960-1966)
• AS Monaco (1966–1968)
• RSC Anderlecht (1969–1971)
• UD Las Palmas (1973–1975)
• Sporting Gijón (1975/76)
• ESCN La Ciotat (1976–1978)
• Sporting Toulon (1979/80)

Palmarès

As a player

• French champion: 1949 , 1953
• French cup winner: 1950
• Division 1 top scorer : 1947
• 2 international caps for France
• 189 appearances and 115 goals in the D1 (188/115 for Reims, 1/0 for Lyon)

As a trainer

• Belgian champion : 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966
• Belgian cup winner: 1965
• Luxembourg national coach

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
• 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

Notes and evidence

1. ^ Thierry Berthou / Collectif: Dictionnaire historique des clubs de football français. Pages de Foot, Créteil 1999, ISBN 2-913146-02-3 , Volume 2, p. 310
2. ↑ see the detailed appreciation of Sinibaldi on planete-asm.fr