World Cup Record Holder Just Fontaine Dies at 89: French Soccer Legend Scored 13 Goals in 1958

Just Fontaine never won a World Cup or Euro, but he has gone down in history. At the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, he had scored the record of 13 goals in 7 matches. "My record still stands. I think I’ll take it to my grave!" he joked in an interview with L’Équipe in 2002 after congratulating Ronaldo on his "fiery World Cup" in South Korea and Japan.

Just was born on August 18, 1933 in the Guéliz district of Marrakech, Morocco, still under the protectorate of the French state, to a French father, a civil servant at the Régie des tabacs, and a Spanish housewife mother. As he grew up, he discovered basketball and football there. "I had a happy childhood. I learned to play football there," he recalled in 2000 in the columns of Le Temps. His passion for the round ball will ultimately prevail. He followed in the footsteps of Larbi Ben Barek, the "black pearl", a Franco-Moroccan legend, by making a career both under the jersey of the Blues and the Atlas Lions.

After obtaining his baccalaureate in Casablanca, Just began his senior career with US Marocaine, "like another of his idols Mario Zatelli. Under this jersey, he scored 62 goals in 48 matches." Selected several times with the team representing the Moroccan League, he won the North African Championship in 1952. After a match against the B team of the French national team, on Christmas Day of the same year, he joined the Blues squad, thus becoming the first Frenchman from Morocco to be called up to the national team.

At the end of his career, the outstanding striker became a coach. Coach of the French national team in 1967, he had a fleeting adventure. He will only lead the Blues for two games. Just later coached the Moroccan national team, from 1979 to 1981. "I wanted to give back what they had given me. If I was a footballer, it’s thanks to Morocco," he assured L’Équipe. But success will not be there. The Atlas Lions finished third in the 1980 CAN in Nigeria. Coach Just was the victim of a road accident before the tournament and was temporarily replaced.