Soccer in Sun and Shadow

Kopa

They called him “the Napoleon of soccer” because he was short and he liked to conquer territory.

With the ball on his foot he grew taller and dominated the field. Raymond Kopa was a player of great mobility and florid moves, who would draw arabesques on the grass as he danced his way toward the goal. Coaches pulled their hair out watching him have so much fun with the ball, and French commentators often accused him of the crime of having a South American style. But at the ’58 World Cup, the press named Kopa to the “dream team” and that year he won the Ballon d’Or for being the best player in Europe.

Soccer had pulled him out of misery. He started out on a team of miners. The son of Polish immigrants, Kopa spent his childhood at his father’s side in the Noeux coal pits. He would go down every night and emerge the following afternoon.