Alexandre Villaplane (24 December 1904 – 27 December 1944) was a French football player who played as a

midfielder 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 ...

. He played for France at the 1928 Summer Olympics and captained the national team at the 1930 FIFA World Cup. Villaplane was also a

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

collaborator who was arrested and executed for his actions during

World War II 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 opposing ...

Football career

In his career he played for Sète (1921–1924), Nîmes (1927–1929),

Racing Club de France Racing Club de France, also known as RCF, is a French omnisport club that was founded on 20 April 1882 under the name Racing Club. Racing Club changed its name to Racing Club de France (RCF) on 21 November 1885. The club is located at the Bois d ...

(1929–1932), Antibes (1932–1933) and

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

(1933–1934). He was capped 25 times for the France national team and was the captain of the French side which went to the 1930 FIFA World Cup. He played for Antibes in the first French professional championship in 1932–33. The League was divided into a Northern and a Southern section with each section made up of ten teams. Antibes finished top of the table in the Southern section and played Lille from the North for the Championship. Antibes won the match and the French league but were stripped of their title after being found guilty of match-fixing. The Lille manager was given a lifetime ban, but Villaplane, who was strongly suspected of fixing the matches, received only a small penalty. Villaplane then joined OGC Nice for the 1933–34 season. Having lost interest in his career and having become a regular horse race-goer, he made one last attempt to resurrect his career with the Bordeaux Second Division club Hispano-Bastidienne, but he ended the season in prison, having been sentenced for his part in a horse race-fixing scandal.

Criminal career

At the beginning of World War II, Villaplane became involved in the Parisian black market and in racketeering the local Jewish population. He was sentenced to two months imprisonment for

possession of stolen goods Possession of stolen goods is a crime in which an individual has bought, been given, or acquired stolen goods. In many jurisdictions, if an individual has accepted possession of goods (or property) and knew they were stolen, then the individua ...

in 1940. Through his criminal background, he came to the attention of the French ''

Carlingue The Carlingue (or French Gestapo) were French auxiliaries who worked for the Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst and Geheime Feldpolizei during the German occupation of France in the Second World War. The group, which was based at 93 rue Lauriston in th ...

'', an organisation formed by the German Reich Security Main Office to conduct counter-insurgency operations against the French Resistance. The group, which was made up of collaborating criminals, was known colloquially as the French Gestapo. It was jointly run by two Parisian gangsters, Henri Lafont and Pierre Bonny. Members utilised their criminal expertise and networks working for the Nazi security services in occupied France and

Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of ...

. Villaplane specialised in the racketeering of gold merchants. In 1942, he left Paris for Toulouse to escape the Germans he had been trying to flee. His former teammate

Louis Cazal Louis-Pierre "Pierrot" Cazal (24 October 1906 – 27 September 1945) was a French international footballer. Cazal spent most of his career with Sète winning the Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Sim ...

obtained new identity papers for him and he returned to Paris. He was arrested by the SS in 1943 for the theft of a quantity of precious stones and imprisoned at the Compiègne camp, although Lafont succeeded in obtaining his release. Villaplane then became Bonny's chauffeur and then, in 1944, head of one of the five sections of the North African Brigade, a criminal organisation made up of North African immigrants who collaborated with the Nazis through anti-Resistance activities.The forgotten story of ... the France football captain who murdered for Hitler
Paul Doyle, Monday 16 November 2009 14.11 GMT guardian.co.uk The fierce character of his recruits earned him the unflattering nickname of "SS Mohammed". He obtained both the rank and uniform of an SS-Untersturmführer. His section was put in charge of finding Resistance members and their supporters in the region of

Périgueux Périgueux (, ; oc, Peireguers or ) is a commune in the Dordogne department, in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Périgueux is the prefecture of Dordogne, and the capital city of Périgord. It is al ...

in the month of March 1944, and then in the region of

Eymet Eymet (; oc, Aimet) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It is notable as a popular location amongst English speaking immigrants, who account for ten per cent of the local population. Geography ...

in the following month. It was in Eymet that he negotiated for the lives of hostages for money. On 11 June 1944, the day following the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane, his squad had 52 people executed in

Mussidan Mussidan (; oc, Moissida) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Mussidan station has rail connections to Bordeaux, Périgueux, Brive-la-Gaillarde and Limoges. Population Roundup of 16 January 19 ...

Execution

He was sentenced to death on 1 December 1944 for his direct involvement in at least 10 killings. He was executed by firing squad on 27 December 1944 at the Fort de Montrouge,

Arcueil Arcueil () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Name The name Arcueil was recorded for the first time in 1119 as ''Arcoloï'', and later in the 12th ...

References

External links

Le footballeur qui voulait être un SSTifo Football. 2018. Alexandre Villaplane: Football’s Psychopath?
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Villaplane, Alexandre 1904 births 1944 deaths Footballers from Algiers Pieds-Noirs French footballers French gangsters French mass murderers France international footballers FC Sète 34 players Nîmes Olympique players Racing Club de France Football players OGC Nice players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Association football midfielders Olympic footballers of France Footballers at the 1928 Summer Olympics 1930 FIFA World Cup players Nazi collaborators shot at the Fort de Montrouge FC Antibes players Algerian people executed abroad Sportspeople convicted of crimes SS-Untersturmführer Executed mass murderers

Football career

Criminal career

Execution

References

Further reading

External links