Emmanuel Aznar (23 December 1915 – 4 October 1970) 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 ...

Career

Anzar, a left-footed

wing half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

with a ferocious shot, played a total of 169 games and scored 118 goals for Olympique de Marseille. However this figure includes "war championship" (1939–1945) games which were mostly held in separate seasons for the occupied and "free" part of the country, and so are not considered official. He won the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

with Marseille in 1938 and as captain in 1943, and the

French championship The French rugby league championship (french: Le Championnat de France de Rugby à XIII) has been the major rugby league tournament for semi-professional and professional clubs in France since the sport was introduced to the country in the 1930s. ...

in 1937 and 1948. On 22 May 1943, during the cup final against

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, Aznar scored a 31st-minute goal which made a hole in the netting (which he claimed was more a sign of the poor equipment available at that time, rather than the power of his shot). On 4 October 1942, Aznar set an unofficial record by scoring 9 goals in one match against Avignon Foot 84 (Marseille won 20–2), despite being substituted in the 66th minute due to injury. He scored 8 goals in the first half, and is the only player to have scored nine goals in one match in professional French football history. That season he went on to finish as the league's top scorer with 45 goals in 30 league matches and a total of 56 goals in 38 matches including

coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

games. Manu, whose career like many others, was upset by the war, had also suffered from a lack of international recognition, playing just one friendly for France in a 1–6 defeat against

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

on 24 March 1938. After the war he became only a supplement player for Marseille, but contributed to the 1947/48 league campaign with 6 goals in only 8 matches, helping them to win the French championship again. He died of a heart attack during a Marseille veterans football match at the age of 54 on 4 October 1970, twenty-eight years to the day after his memorable feat against Avignon. He was wearing the Marseille football shirt.

Honours

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

(2) 1937, 1948 *

(2) 1938, 1943

References

External links

biography at om1899.football.fr
(French)

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aznar, Emmanuel 1915 births 1970 deaths French men's footballers France men's international footballers Ligue 1 players Olympique de Marseille players People from Sidi Bel Abbès Men's association football wing halves