This Day in History: 2023-01-13

Nr. 382

FONTAINE RETIRES AT 27 (1962)

Only four years after setting the record for the most goals scored in a World Cup finals the French striker Just Fontaine was forced to retired aged only 27 years old. A year earlier he had suffered a double fracture of the leg, breaking his tibia and fibula. He had tried to stage a comeback, but was unable to bend his knee and so had to give up football. «It’s a shame because I don’t think that I had reached my peak,» reflected Fontaine. «I could have gone so much further, but I can’t complain. It was just a very short career.»

Injury brought the curtain down prematurely on Fontaine’s career. After his record breaking World Cup exploits this was hard to bear.