René Vignal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
René Vignal in 1949

René Vignal (born August 12, 1926 in Béziers , † November 21, 2016 in Quint-Fonsegrives ) was a French football player . The goalkeeper has played for Racing Paris for most of his athletic career and was also an international .

Club career

René Vignal began playing club football at AS Béziers , the club in his hometown, during the Second World War . In 1944 or 1945 he moved to the second division Toulouse FC , with whom he was promoted to Division 1 in 1946 .

In July 1947, his move was worth 1.45 million  francs to the capital club Racing Paris - "although at that time he was no more than a hopeful young man". However, Vignal soon fulfilled this hope, and in the following three years he always achieved 6th or 7th place in the championship with Racing and the final twice in the national cup . In it he and his team won the Coupe de France in 1949 after a furious 5-2 victory over Lille OSC , which had previously been unbeaten in three finals ; twelve months later, however, Paris failed to defend their title (0-2 against Stade Reims ), although René Vignal was able to keep his box clean until the 81st minute. In addition, he also became a national team player during this period (see below) .

The short and “rather petite goalkeeper” was “enormously talented and concentrated, bold on the field, carefree in everyday life”. Characteristic of his style of play were "daring, often risky running out and cat-like suppleness", which resulted in a number of serious injuries, especially on the head and shoulders, during his active time. His trademark was a "washed-out gray, soft balloon cap that he would not have parted with". With the "penguins" - the nickname Racings, which has been popular with fans and the media since the 1930s - followed the second cup final, however, three less successful years, at the end of 1953 even the relegation to the second class followed. During the immediate resurgence, Vignal guarded Racing's goal as usual and also did his job well in the necessary barrages (May 1954) against local rivals Stade Français - up to the violent clash with Kazimir Hnatow , an opposing player, in which he broke his arm . which subsequently healed poorly and marked the early end of his career. From 1948 - earlier numbers are not available - until 1953 (according to other sources even until 1958, albeit no longer in the top division), he played a total of at least 123 first division games for Racing Paris. However, he made a comeback attempt from 1958 to 1960 at the amateur club FC Béziers .

In the national team

René Vignal has played a total of 17 full internationals for France from April 1949 , the last in April 1954. He made his debut against the Netherlands , where he had to let the ball pass four times. Nevertheless, he was used again only four days later in Glasgow's Hampden Park against Scotland . And although he had to accept two hits - both scored by Billy Steel - in front of almost 126,000 spectators, Scottish newspapers dubbed him "The Flying Frenchman" on the following day because of his numerous spectacular parades and a saved penalty "). Gabriel Hanot named Vignal France's best player in L'Équipe on April 28, 1949, who “after just a few minutes had saved or blocked so many shots that he seemed insurmountable ... Despite a thigh contusion [early in the game] ... he committed not a single mistake ”. Vignal himself recalled that the next day the French "were stopped by people on the streets of Glasgow to congratulate us and ask for autographs". In the years that followed, the French press regularly awarded him the label as Français volant .

Nevertheless, his career with the Bleus was interrupted soon after; between June 1949 and October 1951, Vignal was only used again because he could not convince the new French Sélectionneur Paul Nicolas , who also had two alternatives in the position with Julien Darui and Abderrahman Ibrir . In the legendary 2-2 draw at Wembley against England , Vignal was back in goal, played six games in a row - and was replaced by Nicolas again in October 1952 for almost a year in favor of César Ruminski . In particular for the two qualifying matches for the World Cup in Switzerland , which France both won away (6-1 against Luxembourg and 5-3 against Ireland ), the goalkeeper was again René Vignal, even though he was only playing for a second division at the time - also in the World Cup preparatory match against Italy . Because of his armbreak, this was his last appearance in the national team; the world championship finals, where François Remetter replaced him , he only experienced in the stands.

Vignal has also played three international matches against Switzerland (1949, 1951 and 1953) and one against Austria (1951); at the first post-war meeting against Germany in October 1952, however, he was absent.

Life after the active time

At a time when players' salaries in France were by no means lavish and, in particular, “an early retirement could throw footballers back into anonymity and even into poverty”, René Vignal also had to worry about his livelihood. As early as 1954 he tried his hand at a farmer near Toulouse , temporarily working as a poster and as a bodyguard for Gaullist politicians during their election campaigns in the Limousin and Aquitaine . A period of particularly steep social decline followed, which led him "from slot machines to serious crime (grand banditisme) ". Vignal got into the “orbit of dubious night bar acquaintances”, participated in a large number of armed robberies and was finally sentenced in 1971 to a 15-year prison sentence, which he served in Muret and from which he was released early in April 1979 for good conduct has been.

In 1978 the renowned publisher Éditions Robert Laffont published his life story under the title “Hors-jeu: gloire, chute et résurrection d'un grand champion” (On the sidelines - fame, fall and rebirth of a master) , which was based on several conversations with the author based with Vignal; In 1992 there was a new edition of the book. In 2016 the historian Denis Baud published the book “René Vignal, le goal volant”. In his last years René Vignal lived on the outskirts of Toulouse, where he died at the age of 90.

Palmarès

  • French cup winner: 1949 (and finalist 1950)
  • 17 times national team player

literature

  • 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
  • Matthieu Delahais / Bruno Colombari / Alain Dautel: Le Dico des Bleus. Marabout, Vanves 2017, ISBN 978-2-501-12142-2
  • 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
  • Jean-Philippe Rethacker, Jacques Thibert: La fabuleuse histoire du football. Minerva, Geneva 1996, 2003², ISBN 978-2-8307-0661-1
  • Alfred Wahl, Pierre Lanfranchi: Les footballeurs professionnels des années trente à nos jours. Hachette, Paris 1995, ISBN 978-2-0123-5098-4

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Delahais / Colombari / Dautel, p. 389
  2. ↑ a b Article "Vignal, the last flight" in France Football of November 29, 2016, p. 10
  3. ↑ Wahl / Lanfranchi, p. 145
  4. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, Coupe, p. 365
  5. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, Coupe, p. 366
  6. ↑ Chaumier, pp. 308/309
  7. ↑ a b Chaumier, p. 309
  8. ↑ see Vignal's stake numbers at Boisson / Vian
  9. ↑ see his FFF data sheet (under web links )
  10. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, La belle histoire, pp. 72/73; There are also two photos showing Vignal during successful actions against Scotland's striker William Houliston .
  11. ↑ see, for example, L'Équipe / Ejnès, Coupe, p. 95; Rethacker / Thibert, pp. 192 and 833; Chaumier, p. 309
  12. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, La belle histoire, pp. 311-313.
  13. ↑ Rethacker / Thibert, pp. 195f.
  14. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, La belle histoire, pp. 314f.
  15. ↑ Content and quotations from Wahl / Lanfranchi, p. 159.
  16. ↑ Wahl / Lanfranchi, p. 265.
personal data
SURNAME Vignal, René
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Beziers
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 2016
Place of death Quint-Fonsegrives