Gaston Barreau

Gaston Barreau ( born December 7, 1883 in Levallois -Perret, † June 11, 1958 ) was a French football player and functionary. From November 1919 until his death he was one of those responsible for the selection committee for the French national team and is run as sélectionneur by the French Football Federation from 1932 to 1956. In international statistics, it is generally referred to as national coach.

Playing career

In the club

As Active played Gaston Barreau 1898-1907 for the FEC Levallois, to which he after two years stint at the Paris clubs standard AC and Club Français returned. From 1909 to 1919, the midfielder played back in his hometown; in this period were his twelve appearances in the Équipe Tricolore.

In the National Team

On April 30, 1911 Barreau was for the first time in the French selection; in the 1:7 defeat against Belgium in Brussels, he was the same team leader. After an injury, he left the field after 30 minutes, but came back for the second half. After ten other meetings he was only reinstated on 31 May 1914 as captain. Even in this, his twelfth and final game for France, he was wounded; despite a shoulder fracture quarter hour before closing but he remained on the pitch. However, his team lost the match in Budapest against Hungary with 1:5.

Official career

With the founding of the French Football Federation, a selection committee was set up, which was responsible for preparing the national team. Comité de sélection was the official designation, developed based on the concept later on narrowing sélectionneur ( " sewector " ) for the national coach. This committee was Barreau as technical director, who was in charge during the game. He was in each case a training manager to the side, however played a secondary role.

1930 Bleus took the part in the first World Cup; However Barreau was due to work commitments not accompany his team to Uruguay, coach Raoul Caudron took him there.

On February 24, 1936, he was temporarily intended for the sole sélectionneur before the beginning of 1945 again created a selection committee and in 1950 a dedicated coach was named; on the committee remained Barreau until after the 1954 World Cup, however, the dominant figure. In this role, he was replaced Paul Nicolas from, even if Barreau remained the official staff of the national team until 1958 on the day of the World Cup group game against France died of Yugoslavia. Overall, he was responsible for tricolore 197 Games of Équipe in a managerial capacity.

Some statisticians, even FIFA, Barreau lead as the oldest "Coach" in the World Cup finals. In the group match France against Mexico in the World Cup 1954, after which the Bleus were eliminated despite a 3-2 victory, Barreau was 70 years and 194 days old. In contrast to official Cesare Maldini Barreau was only a few days was as instructor of Paraguay at the 2002 World Cup younger than he was eliminated in the second round against Germany, a real coach.