Roger Piantoni

Roger Piantoni (26 December 1931 – 26 May 2018) was a French footballer who played as an inside-forward and was a star on the France national team in the late 1950s. During the 1949–1950 season, he was the champion of Lorraine with his team, and was the top scorer in the league with 35 goals. At the 1958 FIFA World Cup, Piantoni was considered one of the best French players of his time. He was nicknamed Bout d'chou, meaning "Cabbage Tip", ranking as the sixth top scorer in the French Championship with a total of 203 goals in Division 1.

Roger Piantoni spent his youth in the mining town of La Mourière, in the community of Piennes in Meurthe-et-Moselle. There he was known for playing with Thadée Cisowski in the local club, US Piennes. In 1948, with the youth team of Lorraine, he won the National Youth Cup by beating a youth team from the South-East in the championship. Henri Biancheri and Francis Méano were also on the South-Eastern team. He also played later against Raymond Kopaszewski who was on a northern youth team. The following year, he was accepted onto the French Junior team for the European championship. However, he performed poorly due to insufficient cardio. Fellow France national team player Michel Plantini later experienced the same disappointment.

Piantoni began his career at the age of 19 with FC Nancy during 1950–1951 season. In the first match of the championships, against RC Lens on 27 August 1950, he scored two goals. In his first season, he managed to beco…