Raymond Kopa

Raymond Kopaszewski was born in Nœux-les-Mines, northern France, into a family of Polish coal miners. At age fourteen, Kopa worked underground as a pit-boy, losing an index finger in a mining accident. Refusing a life in the pits, his dazzling footwork and low center of gravity carried him into professional football with Angers SCO and then Stade de Reims in 1951, where he orchestrated Albert Batteux's famed 'champagne football'.

With Reims, Kopa won two French championships and reached the inaugural European Cup final in 1956 against Real Madrid. Real Madrid's president Santiago Bernabéu was so captivated by Kopa's display that he immediately signed him. In the Spanish capital, Kopa was affectionately named 'Little Napoleon' by the British press. Forming an unstoppable attacking line with Di Stéfano, Gento, and later Puskás, Kopa won three straight European Cups between 1957 and 1959 and two La Liga titles.

At the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, Kopa was the creative conductor behind Just Fontaine's record 13-goal blitz, earning the tournament's Best Player accolades alongside Pelé and receiving the 1958 Ballon d'Or. Returning to Reims in 1959, he won two more French championships before retiring. A staunch advocate for players' rights, Kopa famously led a strike against the archaic 'contract for life' system in 1963, securing free-agency rights for future generations.