René Alpsteg

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René Alpsteg (born December 3, 1920 in Bonneville (Haute-Savoie) , † December 24, 2001 ) was a French football player .

Club career

The striker came in 1944 from his hometown club CA Bonneville to AS Saint-Étienne , which played in the southern group of Division 1 this last season during World War II , but only occupied a middle place there. Alpsteg, who was quickly nicknamed “Kiki”, scored eight goals in his first season at the Verts - the Greens are the ASSE footballers in France. Among his best-known teammates in this circle were Ignace Tax and Jean Snella , who later also became his coach, as well as fellow strikers Antoine Rodriguez , Kader Firoud , Antoine Cuissard and later Claude Abbes . René Alpsteg was an extraordinarily versatile type of player who could be used both as a center forward and right winger , but also as an outside runner and, despite his importance as a goal scorer, often helped out in defense.

In total, he played for Saint-Étienne for nine years, during which time he became a French international and scored exactly 100 competitive goals for the Verts . He was particularly successful personally in the 1945/46 season, from which the competition was again considered the official championship , when he was listed in the top scorer list with 18 league hits and was able to celebrate the runner-up with his club. In the cup he reached the semi-finals twice during this time, but then the US Valenciennes (1950/51, 1: 3) and Lille Olympique (1952/53, 0: 1) thwarted the hope of winning the title.

From 1953 to 1955, René Alpsteg played for the second division Racing Club Franc-Comtois from Besançon , which had no chance of promotion to Division 1 at this time , but with which the scorer made it to the cup quarter-finals again. In the 1954/55 season "Kiki" was one of the players who were officially accused of having accepted money from Red Star Olympique Audonien for a loss and passed it on to teammates; he denied this accusation, but admitted that he had received an offer from strangers before the game against Red Star - but "without it being clear to me whether we should win or lose" .

René Alpsteg died on Christmas Eve 2001 at the age of 81. With his younger brother Léon Alpsteg he had temporarily played in a team in both Saint-Étienne and Besançon.

National player

Between May 1947 (4-0 against the Netherlands ) and April 1952 (3-0 against Portugal ) Alpsteg was appointed to twelve international matches in the French national team, with one of four goals he scored in the blue on his debut French jersey scored succeeded. He also scored a goal in his last international appearance. In the circle of the national team, however, he was particularly in demand as a template for Oscar Heisserer and Jean Baratte . His most important game was the 2-2 win against England on October 3, 1951 at the Highbury Stadium , in which he achieved the interim 2-1 lead and the following 70 minutes was not too bad, at the side of the "Heroes of Highbury “, Robert Jonquet , to serve as a tower in the defensive battle. A serious injury in the 1949/50 season prevented a large number of Alpsteg missions, which for three years, between April 1948 and May 1951, was not taken into account at all.

literature

  • Christophe Barge / Laurent Tranier: Vert passion. Les plus belles histoires de l'AS Saint-Étienne. Timée, Boulogne 2004 ISBN 2-915586-04-7
  • Stéphane Boisson / Raoul Vian: Il était une fois le Championnat de France de Football. Tous les joueurs de la première division de 1948/49 à 2003/04. Neofoot, Saint-Thibault o. J.
  • 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
  • Frédéric Parmentier: AS Saint-Étienne, histoire d'une légende. Cahiers intempestifs, Saint-Étienne 2004 ISBN 2-911698-31-2

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Chaumier, p. 16
  2. ^ François de Montvalon / Frédéric Lombard / Joël Simon: Red Star. Histoires d'un siècle. Club du Red Star, Paris 1999 ISBN 2-95125-620-5 , pp. 115f.
  3. ↑ according to L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004 ISBN 2-951-96053-0 , pp. 310-313; according to Chaumier there were only three
personal data
SURNAME Alpsteg, René
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonneville (Haute-Savoie)
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 2001