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Fernand Desrousseaux

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(Redirected from François Desrousseaux) French footballer, manager, and referee
Fernand Desrousseaux
Fernand Desrousseaux in 1910
Personal information
Full name Fernand Louis Adolphe Desrousseaux
Date of birth (1879-10-23)23 October 1879
Place of birth Tourcoing, Nord, France
Date of death 26 August 1956(1956-08-26) (aged 76)
Place of death Tourcoing, Nord, France
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1895–1898 Jeune France
1898–1910 US Tourquennoise
International career
1905 Northern France 0 (0)
1908 France B 1 (0)
Managerial career
1910–1912 US Tourquennoise
1913–1922 Northern France
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Fernand Louis Adolphe Desrousseaux (23 October 1879 – 26 August 1956) was a French footballer who played as a goalkeeper for US Tourquennoise, and who competed in the football tournament of the 1908 Olympic Games in London, doing so as a member of the France B squad. He was also a referee and a manager.

Early life and education

Fernand Desrousseaux was born in Tourcoing on 23 October 1879. Just like his fellow future internationals Émile Sartorius, Adrien Filez, André François, and Gabriel Hanot, Desrousseaux was introduced to football at the Lycée de Tourcoing [fr] by an English teacher, Achille Beltette (1864–1932), with whom he co-founded a non-school club, the US Tourquennoise, in May 1898, along with Albert Fromentin, one of the supervisors of the same high school.

Footballing career

Refereeing career

In 1900, Desrousseaux took the exam to become an official referee, which he passed. He refereed several matches, most notably the final of the 1905 Challenge International du Nord, which was won by the Belgian champions Union Saint-Gilloise.

Playing career

In the first and second leg matches of the 1900 Northern Championship final, Desrousseaux appeared as full-back, but since his brother Paul also played for the club at the time, it is not possible to confirm if that was Fernand. Having initially played in the positions of fullback and forward, it was in 1904 that Desrousseaux took up the position of goalkeeper. Despite having no specific training for such position, he did well, probably because of his corpulence and great height (1.76 meters, or 13cm more than the average height at the time); he soon became the club's captain as well. In 1905, he was selected as the goalkeeper of Northern France for the very first Paris-Nord match, an annual test match for the French national team, but the US Tourcoing players ended up not showing up on the day of the match.

In the late 1900s, Desrousseaux was France's fourth or fifth choice behind the likes of Zacharie Baton, Maurice Tillette, André Renaux, and Henri Beau, but despite this, he was able to earn one international cap during the 1908 Olympic Games in London, doing so as a member of the France B squad, conceding a total of nine goals in a resounding loss to Denmark in the quarter-finals; his northern rival Tilliette would do worse with the A team, letting 17 goals go through in the semifinals. However, he was initially not rewarded a cap for this match, thus remaining unknown in the FFF players' archive until recently.

In October 1907, the 28-year-old Desrousseaux was described as the oldest footballer in the North, and the French newspaper L'Auto (the future L'Équipe) stated that "his presence of mind and his skill makes him one of the best goalkeepers in the North, through his somewhat reckless way of playing has turned the supporters of his club either irreducible adversaries or fanatic admirers, although he cares little about the feelings he inspires". Likewise, during the half-time break of the match against Denmark, with France already 0–4 down, the English press noted, horrified, that he was smoking a cigarette on the sidelines. In April 1909, the L'Auto stated that he had "inaugurated a new kind of goal-keeping, by protecting his goal at the halfway line; it is an elegant, but dangerous way", which means that he usually played almost as a full-back, similar to the modern-day Sweeper-keeper. In 1909, he won his second USFSA Northern Championship.

Manegerial career

Desrousseaux (standing, dressed with coat, second from left) with the US Tourquennoise team before the final of the 1910 USFSA French championship.

Desrousseaux retired from playing in early 1910, aged 30, being replaced in the UST's goal by Albert Parsys. He subsequently became the club's vice-president and manager, leading the UST to the greatest achievement of the club's history, the 1910 French Championship, beating SH de Marseille 7–2 in the final. Some sources state that he never dared to appear on the field where US Tourcoing was playing a match, preferring to wait in "a nearby café impatiently waiting for the first spectators to come out so he could run for news". An engineer, he remained an important leader of the UST, without ever seeking the presidency, preferring a managerial position.

In the mid-1910s, Desrousseaux became the manager of the Northern France football team, a scratch team representing the Northern Committee of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA). In 1922, he was appointed manager of the Northern team for the Paris-Nord match.

Death

Desrousseaux died in Tourcoing on 26 August 1956, at the age of 76.

Honours

As a player

US Tourquennoise

As a manager

US Tourquennoise

Notes

  1. Some sources wrongly claim that he was born in Constantine, Algeria, on 3 January 1885, due to a confusion with a certain François Desrousseaux.

References

  1. ^ "Les premiers Bleus: Fernand Desrousseaux, gardien introuvable" [The first Blues: Fernand Desrousseaux, keeper nowhere to be found]. www.chroniquesbleues.fr (in French). 19 May 2023. Archived from the original on 10 November 2024. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  2. ^ "Fernand Desrousseaux". www.worldfootball.net. Archived from the original on 18 January 2018. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  3. ^ "Fernand Desrousseaux, international football player". eu-football.info. Archived from the original on 28 December 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  4. ^ "Fernand Desrousseaux". www.fff.fr (in French). Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  5. ^ "Fernand Desrousseaux". Olympedia. Archived from the original on 17 September 2024. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  6. ^ "Les Grandes Équipes - Union sportive tourquennoise" [The Great Teams - Tourquennoise Sports Union]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). L'Auto. 9 October 1907. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  7. "U.S.F.S.A - Arbitres officiels" [USFSA - Official referees]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Le Sport picard. 6 October 1900. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  8. "Finale du Challenge International du Nord" [Final of the International Challenge of the North]. www.retronews.fr (in French). Les Sports. 21 May 1905. p. 7. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  9. "Nord matches - Tourcoing". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). The Boulogne and North of France Times. 1 February 1900. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  10. "Nord matches - Tourcoing". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). The Boulogne and North of France Times. 8 February 1900. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  11. "Joueurs Parisiens contre Joueurs du Nord (U.S.F.S.A.)" [Parisian Players versus Northern Players (U.S.F.S.A.)]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). L'Auto. 3 April 1905. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  12. "Football Tournament 1908 Olympiad - Squad Lists". RSSSF. 8 September 2024. Archived from the original on 11 January 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  13. "La finale du Championnat du Nord - Tourcoing bat Boulogne" [The final of the Northern Championship - Tourcoing beats Boulogne]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Dunkerque-sports. 21 March 1909. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  14. "La finale du Championnat de France de Football Association" [The final of the French Association Football Championship]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). L'Auto. 9 October 1907. Archived from the original on 11 November 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  15. "Quelques anecdotes sur le sport et les sportifs" [Some anecdotes about sport and athletes]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Le Miroir des sports. 1 February 1923. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  16. "1913–14 Saison de football" [1913–14 football season] (PDF). footnostalgie.free.fr (in French). p. 38-46. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  17. "Reunion du Conseil du 11 Octobre au Bar Continental à Lille" [Council meeting of October 11 at the Continental Bar in Lille]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Nord sportif. 4 November 1922. p. 3. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
France B football squad – 1908 Summer Olympics
France
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