“A ceremony with a lot of emotion”, is moved Alain Giresse after the funeral of Just Fontaine

Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin, with AFP 8:42 p.m., March 6, 2023, modified at 8:45 p.m., March 6, 2023

Anonymous admirers, family, friends and figures of French football paid a last tribute on Monday to Just Fontaine, striker of the France team famous for his record of 13 goals in a World Cup, died Wednesday at 89 years old.

In the program 

(every evening from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), the Legends of Sport were saddened by this disappearance.

Present on site, Alain Giresse described "a great ceremony with a lot of emotion".

"He was someone who was appreciated by everyone, someone kind," said the former Girondins de Bordeaux player.

Other tributes also took place at the time of the funeral.

"Abroad as on all fields of France, amateurs and professionals, football pays tribute to him", declared Philippe Diallo, interim president of the French Football Federation (FFF), before the religious ceremony at the cathedral. Saint Etienne.

"With this unequaled record and which will remain so for a long time, added Philippe Diallo, he has crossed the ages and marked generations of players".

It was during the 1958 World Cup in Sweden that Fontaine scored his 13 goals.

He formed with Raymond Kopa and Roger Piantoni the attack of the France team, beaten in the semi-finals by Brazil Pelé (5-2).

>> READ ALSO - "He only had one pair... broken": Guy Roux's incredible anecdote about Just Fontaine at the 1958 World Cup

"Our first idols"

Several personalities from the world of football were thus present on Monday in Toulouse.

Next to the president of the Toulouse Football Club (TFC) Damien Comolli, the president of the Stade de Reims, Jean-Pierre Caillot, recalled the three championships won in Champagne.

"While we are here to build and develop this club for the future, we do not forget that we are extraordinarily lucky to have a history that many envy us, shaped by exceptional men and players like Raymond Kopa and Just Fontaine"

 A disappearance which saddens the actors and the fans of football.

For Jacques Vendroux, "Kopa, Fontaine, these are our first idols."

The latter wanted to deliver a last anecdote in the program 

concerning Just Fontaine: "The last match he saw on television was France-Uruguay in a women's match", said the latter recounts after having had the wife of the former footballer on the phone.