Jean Vincent

1950/56 Lille OSC (FRA) 185 matches, 66 goals

(French Championship: 154 matches, 51 goals)

(Play-offs: 2 matches, 1 goal)

(Coupe de France: 22 matches, 11 goals)

(Coupe Charles Drago: 7 matches, 3 goals)

1956/64 Stade de Reims (FRA) 317 matches, 92 goals

(French Championship: 267 matches, 68 goals)

(Coupe de France: 31 matches, 17 goals)

(Coupe Charles Drago: 3 matches, 1 goal)

(European Champion Clubs' Cup: 16 matches, 6 goals)

With the National Team :

46 caps, 22 goals

(Friendly matches: 29 caps, 10 goals)

(World Cup qualifiers: 5 caps, 5 goals)

(World Cup: 8 caps, 2 goals)

(Euro qualifiers: 2 caps, 4 goals)

(Euro: 2 caps, 1 goal)

1st cap: 17 December 1953 against Luxembourg (8-0)

Last cap: 18 October 1961 against Belgium (0-3)

B: 2 caps, 1 goal

Amateur: 1 cap

U18: 1 cap

Rest of Europe: 1 cap, 1 goal

Jean Vincent

Born on November 29, 1930 in Labeuvrière (FRA)

Died on August 13, 2013 in Saint-Nazaire (FRA)

French, Left-Winger, 1m75

A left winger, he is of average height, 1m75 and will sign his first professional contract in 1950 at LOSC, his first match will have been against the Red Star team. His first season is anecdotal and the player only plays 4 times, already scoring his first goal against Nancy at the end of the season.

Still very young, he started in the 1951 Latin Cup final against AC Milan, a bitter defeat for the French club, who lost 5-0. But on an individual level, these first matches allowed him to take a starting place in the Lille squad. During the 1951/52 season, he scored 14 league goals at the age of 21 and established himself as one of the greatest hopes of the league and the country. He thus led his team to a 3rd place.

In 1953, he won the Coupe de France against FC Nancy 2-1, and scored the first goal of the match in the 17th minute. With his attacking partners Jean Baratte and André Strappe, he formed a magnificent attacking trio that delighted in the league.

During the 1953/54 season, he won the French championship and definitively positioned himself among the best French players of the moment despite a less prolific season in terms of the number of goals scored by the winger.

In 1955, he reached the final of the Coupe de France once again and won the trophy again, this time against the Girondins de Bordeaux in an easy 5-2 victory with, once again, Vincent opening the scoring in the 7th minute.

In a LOSC team that shone with its offensive talents, he would still fight to keep the club in the French first division following a catastrophic season in the championship, where the club finished in 18th place in the championship, however managing to stay in the play-offs.

In 1956, after a final season at LOSC marked by an injury and a new negative result in the championship, Jean Vincent left the north of France and joined the legendary Stade de Reims club. At the left-half or left wing position, he left LOSC and brought the golden age of the northern club to a close.

In a huge Reims team composed of Just Fontaine, Léon Glovacki, Michel Hidalgo and René Bliard just in attack, the player will impose himself on the left wing, the winger with incredible speed was an incredible dribbler, capable of taking space then sending a good cross or cutting into the axis and scoring.

It was not until 1957 that the Stade de Reims would find a level at the top of European football, among the best clubs of the old continent. With Reims, Vincent will win a 3rd Coupe de France, in a crazy scenario, during the final, the goalkeeper Dominique Colonna is injured and it is Jean Vincent who takes his place. And he will perform a memorable performance, deflecting a ball on the bar and saving his team, in the end, it is Reims who wins 3-1 this final against Nîmes Olympique.

Vincent is also part of this fabulous European epic that brings Stade de Reims to the Champions League final again, unfortunately it is a final again against Real Madrid who logically win 2-0. Vincent, like all the other outfield players in his team (Colonna stopping a penalty and having a rather good match) plays a disaster class and comes to injure Raymond Kopa, causing him a sprain.

In 1964, after 8 years at Stade de Reims and then aged 33, the winger comes to put an end to his career rich in trophies. A true legend of the French team, he will have scored 22 goals in 46 matches for his country. He will also have left his mark on the first prosperous period of French football internationally.

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