Alexis Thépot

1922/27 Armoricaine de Brest (FRA)

1927/28 FEC Levallois (FRA)

1928/35 Red Star (FRA) 77 matches

(French Championship: 43 matches)

(French D2 Championship: 25 matches)

(French Cup: 9 matches)

1935/36 USL Dunkerque (FRA)

1937/39 US Saint-Malo (FRA)

With the National Team :

31 caps

(Friendly matches: 25 caps)

(World Cup qualification: 1 cap)

(World Cup: 4 caps)

(Olympic Games: 1 cap)

1st cap: May 26, 1927 against England (0-6)

Last cap: March 17, 1935 against Germany (1-3)

Alexis Armand Louis Thépot

Born July 30, 1906 in Brest (FRA)

Died February 21, 1989 in Quiberon (FRA)

French, Goalkeeper, 1m78

Alexis Thépot was born on July 30, 1906, in the lineage of Chayriguès, he is one of the first goalkeepers to leave his goal line and rush into the feet of his opponents. Playing without gloves and wearing dark clothes, he will have been a legend of French football during the 20s and 30s.

Breton, he is the son of a sailor. He became interested in football very early and became in 1922, at the age of 16, the goalkeeper of Armoricaine de Brest. One of his reference matches came during a sixteenth round of the Coupe de France against Club Français in 1927, his performance was so impressive that it almost single-handedly allowed him to join the French military team, then the French national team.

He made his debut with France on May 26, 1927 against England during a bitter defeat 6 goals to 0. The French team at this time was a small football nation and did not weigh heavily on an international scale.

At a time when professional football was only just beginning in France, he took the customs exam in 1925 and passed. Spotted for his performances, he was assigned to Paris to practice his new profession, he then joined FEC Levallois before joining the legendary Red Star club, a major French club before the Second World War. He thus succeeds the star Pierre Chayriguès who had a similar and innovative style of play, considered to be the first "modern" goalkeeper in the history of football.

Despite his status as a football star, Thépot could not play football full-time and only trained twice a week, after his working days at the customs administration. Alexis stayed at Red Star until he was 29, enough to win a second division title in 1933.

In the French national team, he wore the French jersey 31 times between 1927 and 1935. He participated in the 1930 and 1934 World Cups, without much success but became a legend of the team and his country. For the 1930 edition, he had been given exceptional leave by the customs administration in order to embark with the French selection for Uruguay.

For the first match in the history of the French team in the World Cup, Thépot lost consciousness for 45 minutes following a collision with a Mexican striker who hit him violently in the head. It was then Augustin Chantrel, the team's starting midfielder, who replaced the goalkeeper (substitutions did not yet exist). France won this match 4-1.

He played the next 2 matches, and even if he was excellent, he could not prevent his team's defeats. He ended up being voted the best goalkeeper of the tournament by many. He was also the only European player to appear in the competition's typical team.

In Italy in 1934, during the World Cup, the French and Thépot were eliminated in the first round by Austria and its Wunderteam. Still a customs officer, he continued his football career in Dunkirk before hanging up his boots at US Saint-Malo in 1939 at the age of 33.

- Best goalkeeper of the World Cup in 1930

- Part of the team of the tournament of the World Cup in 1930

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