Robert Héliès

Robert Héliès (1972)

Robert Héliès (born February 8, 1927 in Brest , † February 19, 2019 ) was a French football player and referee.

In his time as a player he was a goalkeeper. Among other things, he appeared in the 1951/52 season in the first division eight times for AS Saint-Étienne . It was enough to win once, while on the other side four defeats and 18 goals conceded were recorded. In the end, "the Greens" were ninth in the league, which then consisted of 18 clubs.

He first appeared as a referee in the light of a wider public in 1959 when he appeared in the French Southeast League. Since 1961 it was also used nationally and from 1966 it was also used internationally.

In France, he headed the cup finals of 1970 and 1975. The high point of his career, however, was leading the final in the 1971/72 European Cup between Ajax Amsterdam and Inter Milan in Rotterdam , which the Dutch won 2-0 and thus their second international trophy collected.

From a German perspective, the leadership of the quarter-final first leg of the 1972 European Football Championship between England and Germany at Wembley Stadium , in which the DFB selection became only the fourth team from the continent to win there, will be remembered. The German Wembley team won 3-1 at the time and Robert Héliès did not hesitate to impose a penalty against the hosts five minutes before the end of the game, which Günter Netzer used to score 2-1 at the time.

He also led qualifying games for the European Football Championships in 1968 and 1976 and for the 1974 World Cup . But he was denied finals because there was no way around France's top referee of the 1970s, Robert Wurtz . But he was able to console himself a little with a commitment at the Olympic Games, where he was used at the 1976 football tournament in Montreal .

In 1972 he also whistled a series of friendly matches for the Brazilian national soccer team in Brazil.

Héliès spent his old age on the Mediterranean coast near Toulon , where he died shortly after his 92nd birthday.

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1. ^ Obituary dated February 19, 2019 at L'Équipe