Raymond Kopa
Inside Forward / Second Striker · Reims · France
About Raymond Kopa
Raymond Kopa (born Kopaszewski) is the finest French footballer before Michel Platini — an inside-forward who won the Ballon d'Or in 1958, won three consecutive European Cups with Real Madrid (1956, 1957, 1958) alongside Alfredo Di Stéfano, and helped France finish third at the 1958 World Cup. He was the son of Polish immigrant miners. His talent was so exceptional that Real Madrid bought him from Stade de Reims — the first Frenchman to play for the greatest club in the world.
Raymond Kopa's story
Real Madrid
In 1956, Real Madrid signed Raymond Kopa from Stade de Reims — making him the first Frenchman to join the world's greatest club. He spent three seasons alongside Alfredo Di Stéfano, winning three consecutive European Cups. His role — operating in behind Di Stéfano, creating and occasionally finishing — gave Real Madrid a creative quality that Reims had demonstrated in the European Cup final of 1956 (which Reims lost). Di Stéfano, after working with him, called Kopa the finest technical player he had partnered.
1958 Ballon d'Or
Kopa won the Ballon d'Or in 1958 — France's first winner — after a year in which he had returned to Stade de Reims and helped France finish third at the World Cup in Sweden. Just Fontaine scored 13 goals at that tournament; Kopa created many of them. The partnership of Kopa (creator) and Fontaine (finisher) at the 1958 World Cup is considered the finest French attacking combination at any World Cup until the Zidane era.
Immigrant's Son
Kopa was born Kopaszewski — the son of a Polish immigrant miner who had moved to Northern France for work. He grew up in mining country and began working underground himself before football provided an alternative. His rise from the mining communities of Noeux-les-Mines to Real Madrid and the Ballon d'Or is one of football's most complete social mobility stories.
Did you know?
- 🥇 He won the Ballon d'Or in 1958 — France's first winner and the first by any player from a mining family — 23 years before Michel Platini won it for France again.
- 🏆 He won three consecutive European Cups with Real Madrid (1956, 1957, 1958) alongside Alfredo Di Stéfano — one of only a handful of players in history to win the competition three times in succession.
- 🤝 His creative partnership with Just Fontaine at the 1958 World Cup — Kopa creating, Fontaine scoring 13 goals — is considered the finest French attacking combination at a World Cup until Zidane's emergence.
- 🌟 Alfredo Di Stéfano, who partnered him at Real Madrid, said: 'Raymond Kopa was the finest technical player I have partnered. His vision, his dribbling, the speed of his thought — Real Madrid was a better team because he was part of it.'
- ⛏️ He was the son of a Polish immigrant miner and began working underground himself before football offered an escape — his rise from the mines of Northern France to Real Madrid and the Ballon d'Or is one of sport's greatest social mobility stories.
- 📊 He scored 286 career goals in 558 appearances — from an inside-forward role that primarily created rather than scored — reflecting a player whose goal return was exceptional for a position not defined by goalscoring.
- 🇫🇷 He was the first Frenchman to join Real Madrid and the first to win the Ballon d'Or — pioneering what would become a well-worn French path to Spain that later included Zidane, Benzema, and Griezmann.
- 💔 He died in March 2017 aged 85 — France's greatest player before Platini, in a country where his generation is less remembered than it deserves, overshadowed by the more globally televised careers of those who followed.
- 🎖️ UEFA voted him one of their 50 Golden Players for their 50th anniversary — one of France's two selections alongside Michel Platini — confirming his status as one of the two most important French footballers of the 20th century.
Honours
- Ballon d'Or: 1958 — France's first Ballon d'Or winner
- European Cup x3: Real Madrid (1956, 1957, 1958)
- La Liga: Real Madrid
- Ligue 1 x4: Reims
- France's First Ballon d'Or: The first Frenchman to win the award — 23 years before Michel Platini
See the full Raymond Kopa profile
Stats, photo gallery, what the press are saying and the daily challenge, free on DailyPlayer.
Open the full profile