Eugène Maës (15 September 1890 – 30 March 1945) was a French

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a striker.

Career

A young prodigy of the

Lost Generation The Lost Generation was the social generational cohort in the Western world that was in early adulthood during World War I. "Lost" in this context refers to the "disoriented, wandering, directionless" spirit of many of the war's survivors in th ...

, Maës was the first true goalscorer for the France national team. With a great combat injury during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

which obliged him to retire from professional football, Maës would certainly have been one of the best players for the tricolors, because in less than two years of his international career, he scored 15 goals in just 11 caps. His most glorious day remains 17 March 1912 in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, where, against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, after having arrived at 5 A.M., he scored a hat trick, and the French team defeated the Italians for the first time in their history, 4–3. The Red Star striker also holds another record with the blue shirt, thanks to the 5 goals he scored against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

in 1913, in an 8–0 victory. Only

Thadée Cisowski Thadée Cisowski (16 February 1927 – 24 February 2005), originally Tadeusz Cisowski, was a French former footballer who played as a striker. A son of Polish immigrants, he was one of the best goalscorers in Championnat de France. In the Worl ...

would equal this accomplishment in 1956. He was a reserve team member at the 1912 Summer Olympics but did not appear on the field.Olympedia. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, having been denounced to the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

for anti-German remarks, Maës was deported in 1943 and died two years later in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in Ellrich.

References

External links

* * 1890 births 1945 deaths French footballers France international footballers Association football forwards Red Star F.C. players French football managers Stade Malherbe Caen managers French military personnel of World War I People who died in Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp French people who died in Nazi concentration camps French civilians killed in World War II {{France-footy-forward-1890s-stub