In the summer of 1958, a striker turned up to a World Cup as a reserve, borrowed a team-mate's boots for his first game, and then proceeded to score 13 goals in six matches — a record that has stood for 68 years and remains untouched at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
That man was Just Fontaine, and his story is one of the most extraordinary in football history.
The man who shouldn't have been playing
Fontaine was not France's first-choice striker heading into the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. His place in the starting XI came only after team-mate René Bliard was injured in a warm-up match, leaving manager Albert Batteux with little choice but to call on a player who had just five senior caps to his name.
The situation was so last-minute that Fontaine had no boots of his own to wear. He had damaged his pair in training and had not brought a spare set. He borrowed a pair from team-mate Stéphane Bruey and ran out for France's opening match in footwear that wasn't his.
