World Cup finals record goal-scorer Just Fontaine dies

PARIS: Just Fontaine, the all-time top scorer in a single World Cup finals with 13 goals, has died aged 89, his family told AFP on Wednesday (Mar 1).

Fontaine achieved the record during the 1958 finals in Sweden, where France reached the semi-finals for the first time in their history.

To this day, only three players have scored more World Cup goals than Fontaine, even though the Reims player appeared at just one tournament and played only six matches.

Lionel Messi matched his tally on Argentina's recent run to glory in Qatar, but it took him five World Cups to get there.

That 1958 World Cup in Sweden is best remembered as the coming of age of a 17-year-old Pele, who inspired Brazil to victory after netting a hat-trick in their 5-2 semi-final win over France.

However, it was a personal triumph for Fontaine, whose four-goal haul in the third-place playoff win over West Germany ensured that he had scored in every game.

Part of a wonderful attacking trident alongside Roger Piantoni and Raymond Kopa, Fontaine might never have gone to Sweden at all.

Only injuries to Thadee Cisowski and his Reims teammate Rene Bliard saw him make the squad and then the starting line-up.

"It was only at the airport before leaving for Sweden that Paul Nicolas (part of the national team staff) and Albert Batteux (the France coach), who didn't really want me, told me I would be playing as centre-forward," Fontaine told AFP in 2013.

Only Germany's Miroslav Klose (16), Brazil's Ronaldo (15) and Gerd Muller, the West German hero of the 1970s who scored 14 times, have netted more World Cup finals goals.

Just two other players - Muller with 10 in 1970 and Hungary's Sandor Kocsis with 11 in 1954 - have reached double figures at a single World Cup.

Yet, Kopa is