Raymond Kopa

**Raymond Kopa** (**Raymond Kopaszewski**; 13 October 1931 – 3 March 2017) was a professional French football player. He has played for France national team and for Real Madrid.

In 1970 he became the first football player to receive the Légion d'honneur, and in 2004, Pelé named him one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony.

## Early life

Kopa was born to a family of Polish immigrants in Nœux-les-Mines, France.

## Career

After finishing second in the French national youth football trials in 1949, Kopa began his professional career at the age of 17 with SCO Angers in Ligue 2 and was transferred two years later to Reims, with whom he won French championships in 1953 and 1955.

He won the 1953 Latin Cup with Stade de Reims, where they defeated AC Milan 3–0 in the final, and helped them reach the 1956 European Cup Final, which the team lost to Alfredo Di Stéfano's Real Madrid, 4–3.

Kopa was also the first French player to win the European Cup when Madrid defeated Fiorentina 2–0 in the 1957 final. He would go on to be European champion again in 1958 and 1959, the last against former side Stade de Reims, where Just Fontaine played.

In the 1959–60 season, Kopa returned to France to finish his career with Reims, where he won further _Championnats_ in 1960 and 1962. In total, he scored 75 goals in 346 matches in France's top flight, and was given the _Ballon d'or_ by France Football in 1958.

With the France national football team, Kopa scored 18 goals in 45 games between 1952 and 1962. He played in the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden.

## Death

Kopa died in Angers, France on 3 March 2017, aged 85.

### Club

|rowspan="2"|Club|rowspan="2"|Season|colspan="3"|League|colspan="2"|National cup|colspan="2"|Continental|colspan="2"|Total|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Angers|1949–50|Division 2||||||||||
|1950–51||||||||||||
|Reims|1951–52|Division 1|33|8||||||||
|1952–53|33|13||||||||||
|1953–54|31|11||||||||||
|1954–55|31|11||||||||||
|1955–56|30|5||||||||||
|Real Madrid|1956–57|La Liga|22|6|0|0|8|2|30|8||
|1957–58|27|8|0|0|7|3|34|11||||
|1958–59|30|10|0|0|7|1|37|11||||
|Reims|1959–60|Division 1|36|14||||||||
|1960–61|30|5||||||||||
|1961–62|30|2||||||||||
|1962–63|34|1||||||||||
|1963–64|25|5||||||||||
|1964–65|Division 2|29|3|||||||||
|1965–66|27|3||||||||||
|1966–67|Division 1|33|3|||||||||

### International

|National team|Year|Apps|Goals||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="11"|France|1952|5|2|
|1953|6|3|||
|1954|6|4|||
|1955|6|4|||
|1956|1|0|||
|1957|0|0|||
|1958|7|4|||
|1959|4|0|||
|1960|3|1|||
|1961|3|0|||
|1962|4|0|||

- _Scores and results list France's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kopa goal._

|scope="col"|No.|scope="col"|Date|scope="col"|Venue|scope="col"|Opponent|scope="col"|Score|scope="col"|Result|scope="col"|Competition|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|11 November 1952|Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Paris, France|||3–1|Friendly||||||||
|2||||||||||||||
|3|14 May 1953|Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Paris, France|||6–1|Friendly||||||||
|4||||||||||||||
|5|20 September 1953|Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg, Luxembourg|||6–1|1954 FIFA World Cup Q.||||||||
|6|30 May 1954|Stade Heysel, Brussels, Belgium|||3–3|Friendly||||||||
|7|19 June 1954|Charmilles Stadium, Geneva, Switzerland|||3–2|1954 FIFA World Cup||||||||
|8|11 November 1954|Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Paris, France|||2–2|Friendly||||||||
|9||||||||||||||
|10|17 March 1955|Estadio Chamartín, Madrid, Spain|||21|Friendly||||||||
|11|15 May 1955|Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Paris, France|||1–0|Friendly||||||||
|12|9 October 1955|St. Jakob Stadium, Basel, Switzerland|||2–1|Friendly||||||||
|13|23 October 1955|Dinamo Stadium, Moscow, Soviet Union|||2–2|Friendly||||||||
|14|8 June 1958|Idrottsparken, Norrköping, Sweden|||7–3|1958 FIFA World Cup||||||||
|15|15 June 1958|Eyravallen, Örebro, Sweden|||2–1|1958 FIFA World Cup||||||||
|16|26 June 1958|Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden|||6–3|1958 FIFA World Cup||||||||
|17|1 October 1958|Parc des Princes, Paris, France|||7–1|UEFA EURO 1960||||||||
|18|27 March 1960|Praterstadion, Vienna, Austria|||4–2|UEFA EURO 1960||||||||

## Honours

**Reims**
- Division 1: 1952–53, 1954–55, 1959–60, 1961–62
- Latin Cup: 1953
- Division 2: 1965–66
- European Cup runner-up: 1955–56

**Real Madrid**
- La Liga: 1956–57, 1957–58
- European Cup: 1956–57, 1957–58, 1958–59
- Latin Cup: 1957

**France**
- FIFA World Cup third place: 1958

**Individual**
- Ballon d'or: 1958; runner-up: 1959; third place: 1956, 1957
- FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1958
- Etoile d'Or: 1960
- French Player of the Year: 1960
- FIFA XI: 1963
- _World Soccer_ World XI: 1963
- World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time
- Golden Foot: 2006, as a football legend
- UEFA President's Award: 2010
- FIFA 100
- 3rd French Player of the Century

**Orders**
- Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur: 1970
- Officier of the Légion d'honneur: 2007

## Other websites

- French Football Federation profile
- _L'Équipe_ stats
- FootballDatabase profile and stats
- European Champions Cup/UEFA Champions League Winning Squads
- Interview on uefa.com

## Infobox (football biography)

- **name**: Raymond Kopa
- **image**: Kopa, Franse vortballer, Bestanddeelnr 910-9312.jpg
- **caption**: Kopa with France national football team, France in 1960
- **fullname**: Raymond Kopaszewski
- **birth place**: Nœux-les-Mines, France
- **death place**: Angers, France
- **height**: 1.68 m
- **position**: Forward (association football), Forward
- **youthyears1**: 1941–1949
- **youthclubs1**: US Nœux-les-Mines, Nœux-les-Mines
- **years1**: 1949–1951
- **clubs1**: Angers SCO, Angers
- **caps1**: 60
- **goals1**: 15
- **years2**: 1951–1956
- **clubs2**: Stade de Reims, Reims
- **caps2**: 158
- **goals2**: 48
- **years3**: 1956–1959
- **clubs3**: Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid
- **caps3**: 79
- **goals3**: 24
- **years4**: 1959–1967
- **clubs4**: Stade de Reims, Reims
- **caps4**: 244
- **goals4**: 36
- **totalcaps**: 541
- **totalgoals**: 123
- **nationalyears1**: 1952–1962
- **nationalteam1**: France national football team, France
- **nationalcaps1**: 45
- **nationalgoals1**: 18