13 October: Kopa, the Napoleon of football
Raymond Kopa
«the Napoleon of football»
- Angers SCO 1949-1951 · 15 goals
- Stade de Reims 1951-1956 · 48 goals
- Real Madrid Club de Fútbol 1956-1959 · 24 goals
- Stade de Reims 1959-1967 · 36 goals
From the mine to Reims
His name was Kopaszewski and he was the son of Polish immigrants who worked in the coal mines of northern France. At fourteen he went down the pit and an accident cost him part of a finger. Football was his way out.
At Stade de Reims he became a star, and in 1956 he played in the first European Cup final ever, in Paris, against Real Madrid. He lost it 4-3. Madrid kept the trophy and, a few months later, him too.
Three European Cups
He played three seasons at Madrid, mostly on the right, alongside Di Stéfano, Rial and Gento, and from 1958 with Puskás. He won the 1957, 1958 and 1959 European Cups, the last against his old club Reims. That 1958-59 season was the one of the famous five-man forward line, which played together for the first time on 5 October.
At the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, with Just Fontaine scoring thirteen goals, France finished third and Kopa was the best player of the tournament. In December he won the Ballon d'Or. He then went back to Reims, where he won two more league titles.
Also born on 13 October
Antonio Di Natale, Totò, Udinese's own
A Neapolitan striker who spent almost his entire career at Udinese, a club with no title ambitions, and still finished as Serie A's top scorer two years running, in 2010 and 2011. He turned down offers from big clubs to stay in Udine, where he is the club's all-time top scorer.
- Empoli Football Club 1996-2004 · 49 goals
- A.S.D. Boca Pietri 1997-1998 · 6 goals
- Viareggio Calcio 1998-1999 · 12 goals
- Associazione Sportiva Varese 1910 1998
- Udinese Calcio 2004-2016 · 191 goals
Another 45 internationally known footballers were born on this day. We do not list them for the sake of it: only those with a story to tell make it here.
📅 The almanac: pick any date
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Football almanac · Elopi23
January
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March
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May
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June
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July
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August
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September14 ★
- 11 September: Ruud Gullit
- 1111 September: Franz Beckenbauer
- 1818 September: Ronaldo
- 2020 September: Henrik Larsson
- 2121 September: Sándor Kocsis
- 2222 September: Thiago Silva
- 2323 September: Quini
- 2424 September: Marco Tardelli
- 2525 September: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
- 2626 September: Michael Ballack
- 2727 September: Francesco Totti
- 2828 September: Javi Poves
- 2929 September: Andriy Shevchenko
- 3030 September: Frank Rijkaard
October13 ★
- 11 October: George Weah
- 22 October: Alisson Becker · Roberto Firmino
- 33 October: Zlatan Ibrahimović
- 44 October: Jorge Valdano
- 55 October: Kopa, Rial, Di Stéfano, Puskás and Gento
- 66 October: Bruce Grobbelaar
- 77 October: Diego Costa
- 88 October: Zvonimir Boban
- 99 October: Gheorghe Popescu
- 1010 October: Tony Adams
- 1111 October: Bobby Charlton
- 1212 October: Cristhian Stuani
- 1313 October: Raymond Kopa
November
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December
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★ published · ✎ written, waiting for their day · the red circle is today
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Dates, clubs, individual awards and photos come from Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, under free licences, and update themselves. Ages are not written anywhere: they are calculated the moment you open the page, so this page always shows the right age, this year and twenty years from now. If any of these players signs for another club or wins an award, their profile picks it up on its own. What is written by hand is the story and the judgement: who the day belongs to, and why.