Despite leaks to the media during the installation of the statue of Just Fontaine, last Friday, there was a crowd, two days later, this Sunday October 6, 2024, around the Auguste-Delaune stadium in Reims, for the inauguration of the work. An hour before the kick-off of the match between the clubs of Reims and Montpellier, the guests, in particular his widow Arlette, paid tribute to the exceptional scorer who arrived in 1956 at the Stade de Reims to become one of the greatest legends of the Champagne club and even the French football team. He died on March 1, 2023, at the age of 89.
“An eternal figure of the Stade de Reims and the French team,” even underlined the president of the Reims club, Jean-Pierre Caillot, when honoring the man who, in six seasons, piled up the goals (145 in 152 matches) and titles (three championships, a Coupe de France and two top scorer titles). Fontaine is best known for having achieved the feat of scoring 13 goals during the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, including a quadruple in the match for third place against Germany (6-3). An unrivaled and undoubtedly unbeatable record.
With donations from fans
“He was the first popular French football icon. Just Fontaine is Reims, and Reims is Just Fontaine,” enthused the mayor (Horizons), Arnaud Robinet, whose municipality assumed the cost of this project, i.e. 200,000 euros for the sculpture of bronze and 70,000 euros of fittings. She was also able to count on an effective sponsorship campaign which made it possible to raise 50,000 euros, part of which was paid by the clubs of Reims and Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), the city where the late footballer rests.
Six years ago, it was the Briton Carl Payne who sculpted a bronze of Raymond Kopa, the other statuette legend near the Auguste-Delaune stadium. For that of Just Fontaine, erected a stone’s throw from that of his former teammate, it was the Franco-Peruvian artist Juan Carlos Carillo, based in Châlons (Marne), who worked. He decided to represent a Fontaine preparing to shoot a ball, who “smiles because he shares his victory with us”, as the creator of this 300 kg and 1.62 m bronze explains. “Reims already had the iconic Smiling Angel, we also needed the smile of Just Fontaine. » There were also smiles on the faces of the supporters, two hours later, when Stade de Reims gave them a spectacular victory, 4 to 2, against Montpellier.
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