Jean Raynal (18 August 1929 – January 2015) was a French sports journalist, who worked for

Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française L'Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF; ) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. All programming, and especially news broadcasts, were under strict control ...

and

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is par ...

. He commentated on football, rugby, basketball, and the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. He was nicknamed ''Monsieur Basket'' (Mr Basketball).

Personal life

Raynal was born in

Massiac Massiac (; oc, Maciac) is a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France. Population See also *Communes of the Cantal department The following is a list of the 246 Communes of France, communes of the Cantal Departments of Fra ...

Cantal Cantal (; oc, Cantal or ) is a Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region of France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Aurillac. Its other principal towns are Saint-Flour, Cantal, Saint ...

, France. He studied at the in Paris.

Career

Raynal began his work as a radio presenter in 1957. In 1968, Raynal became a television presenter on

, and was one of the first five members of the organisation's committee on objective journalism. From 1975 to 1988, Raynal worked for

. Raynal commentated at five

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

s; he commentated at the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

alongside

Pierre Cangioni Pierre Cangioni (born 29 July 1939) is a French sports journalist, best known for presenting the French football television programme ''Téléfoot'' from 1977 to 1982. He was the president of Olympique de Marseille from 1994–95. Personal ...

. Between 1983 and 1984, Raynal presented one season of TF1's football programme

Téléfoot ''Téléfoot'' is a French football programme produced by TF1 Production for TF1. The programme was created by Pierre Cangioni in 1977 to show French Division 1 highlights. Téléfoot now covers France international matches, European club ...

. Aside from football, Raynal covered basketball in the 1970s and 1980s. Raynal was nicknamed "Monsieur Basket" (Mr Basketball), and in 1980, he wrote the book ''La Fabuleuse histoire du basket'' (''The fabulous history of basketball''). Raynal also covered 26

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

tennis championships, and six

. He commentated with

Raoul Barrière Raoul Barrière (3 March 1928, in Béziers – 8 March 2019) was a French rugby union player and a coach."L'homme qui a «fait» l'équipe de Béziers, c'est incontestablement l'entraîneur Raoul Barrière, 45 ans, un nez cassé de boxeur et une ...

at the 1978–79 French Rugby Union Championship final, where

Narbonne Narbonne (, also , ; oc, Narbona ; la, Narbo ; Late Latin:) is a commune in France, commune in Southern France in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region. It lies from Paris in the Aude Departments of Franc ...

beat

Stade Bagnérais Stade Bagnérais () is a French rugby union club currently competing at the third level of the French league system (Fédérale 1). They are based in Bagnères-de-Bigorre, a small town of 8,000 inhabitants, in the Hautes-Pyrénées département, ...

. Fellow sports journalist

Didier Roustan Didier Roustan (born 10 October 1957) is a French sports journalist who has presented and commentated for multiple French football channels, and currently works for L'Équipe television channel. In 1984, he was the temporary main presenter of t ...

said that Raynal was his inspiration.

Works

* Raynal, Jean, ''Le volley-ball'' (''Volleyball''), 1977 * Raynal, Jean, ''La Fabuleuse histoire du basket'' (''The fabulous history of basketball''), 1980

Death

Raynal died in 2015 at the age of 85.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raynal, Jean French sports journalists 1929 births 2015 deaths Sportspeople from Cantal French television presenters