The Stade de Reims a big European forgotten

The Stade de Reims a big European forgotten

Hanging by the Football brings to mind a great classic of French football: the Stade de Reims, Rojiblancos that reigned in France during the years 50 and outside the elite after thirty-three years he returned to Ligue 1 in 2012. A population of just 190.000 people who enjoyed the best football during the middle years of the twentieth century.

Con 101 years of history, The club was born under the name of Sociedad Deportiva Park Pommery although in 1931 adopt the name by which he is known today. The early years were spent in team amateurism, since it was not until 1935 when the box Reims would jump to professionalism.

But without any doubt, the start of club success came after World War II. In the season 1945-46, the team managed to play for the first time Ligue 1 and gain the services of two players emblems club history; Robert Junk, an exceptional libero of the time, and Roger Manche, a myth of league gala 542 games behind.

With two of them and Armand Panverne, The team gave a qualitative leap that led him to win his first Ligue 1 in 1949 and his first Cup title a year later by beating Racing de Paris 2-1. Signing in 1951 Raymond Kopa would elevate the status of a team that 1953 getting a new league championship and Latin Cup, tournament prior to playing European Cup teams Portugal, Spain, Italy and France and enjoyed great prestige at the time. Those two titles had to add a new Ligue1 in 1955 that gave him access to the newly created European Cup.

An international competition that was not going to get anything wrong in his debut, because the French team would get to reach the final of the Parc des Princes in Paris, where only Real Madrid would be able to stop them by a tight 4-3 and after overcome an adverse 0-2 in the initial minutes. Whites who had a team playing in the great Don Alfredo Di Stefano, Hector Rial, Marquitos or Gento, already they loomed as the great gaming machine would achieve five European Cups in a row.

Stade Reims and Real Madrid faced off in the final of the European Cup 1956.
Stade Reims and Real Madrid faced off in the final of the European Cup 1956.

The next season despite progress precisely Kopa Real Madrid, It would be the most successful club in its history. Big signings Just Fontaine (top scorer in a world with 13 goals), Jean Vincent, Roger Piantoni and Dominique Colonna led the team to a league-Cup double, and to be the basis of the French team in the World 58, Championship where France would achieve reach the semifinals.

This brilliant performance earned him the team to qualify one year after their second European Cup final in Stuttgart, where again the Real Madrid would beat them by 2-0, with another great performance by Di Stefano. Around Cup season 59-60 He brought a new League, the fifth team, that would top his record achieving a sixth league title 1962, year of the dismemberment of the team with the withdrawal of Just Fontaine due to a serious injury of tibia and fibula that could not solve. It would be the last great success of a team that two years later down to Ligue 2 after many years in the top elite.

From there the Stade de Reims, lose weight over the years in French football, because it would only reach a cup final in 1977 among other things thanks to both a young Argentine named Carlos Bianchi ( 5 years top scorer in France and later coach of the club four years). A mirage for a team that two years later would return to Ligue well 2 and the Championnat (the third French category) not to return to 2012. Now, One can only hope that this European historical recover the site should never have lost.

Carlos Bianchi was the star of Stade Reims of 70.
Carlos Bianchi was the star of Stade Reims of 70.

Julio Muñoz

Journalist, specialist in international football and retro. I write in Colgadosporelfutbol.com and you can follow me at @ juliomv1982

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