During the 1954 World Cup he was awarded the Best Young Player of the tournament. He went one better in the 1958 competition by winning the Beat Player award itself. It was a remarkable acheivement when you consider the talent to choose from.
Reims also reached the 1956 European Cup Final which they narrowly lost to the giants of Spain, Real Madrid, complete with the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano, at the Parc des Princes, Paris, 4-3.
As a result of his impressive displays Kopa was transferred to Real the following year. In all he had played 158 games for Reims, scoring an impressive 48 times. In Madrid he joined forces with Hungarian international, the late, and great Ferenc Puskas.
It was a formidable line-up that pitched Kopa alongside Di Stefano and signalled a period that saw Real Madrid begin to conquer European football. At Real, Kopa added the Spanish League titles of 1957 and 1958 to his list of honours. He also helped the club win the European Cup again by beating Italy's Fiorentina, 2-0 in the 1957 final. In doing so he became the first French player to lay hands on the trophy.
This proved to be merely the start and further European Cups were added in 1958, and 1959. The 1958 win came by virtue of a 3-2 win over AC Milan with goals from Di Stefano, Rial, and Gento securing the trophy in Brussels.
That year saw Kopa win the coveted Ballon d'Or, the European Footballer Of The Year award. The 1959 season saw Real Madrid win their fourth consecutive European Cup, again with Kopa on board, when they beat his old team Stade Reims in the Stuttgart final. Reims at that time were blessed with the goalscoring talents of Just Fontaine, another legendary figure of French football coming from French Morocco.
The following year Kopa, at the age of 28, returned to Reims in France. In his time with Real Madrid he had played nearly 80 games scoring 24 goals. His return to France helped Reims underline their near dominance of the French league and they won the championship in 1960 and 1962.
Article comments
1 - Dr Dreadful
Yup. He's right up there with Just Fontaine (scorer of a never-to-be-emulated 13 goals in the 1958 World Cup finals), Michel Platini and the incomparable Zinedine Zidane.