Some have one day seen Maradona in an airport departure lounge and can’t get over it. In Toulouse, the thrill, the ultimate love of football in the presence of a legend, could occur almost daily, as long as you walk in the city center. Before his health declined, five years ago, we met “Justo” there, limping quietly, with his soccer knees in capilotade, sometimes a shopping bag in his hand.
You could come across him in the elevator and then between the stalls of the Victor-Hugo market, or in the Saint-Georges district, which had the immense advantage for him of housing both the Lacoste family store, taken over by his son , and the circle of the French in North Africa, where he liked to hit the box with his faithful friends.
“We knew the Just Fontaine from football, who lived his life discreetly in Toulouse”, underlines the mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc (ex-LR). The city councilor remembers the “jokes” and the “taste for human relations” of this brand citizen. How many Toulouse people were tempted to call him out in the street before yet another World Cup to ask him if, this time, he was trembling for his record that Ronaldo, Brazilian then Portuguese, boasted he could beat. How many have finally given up bothering him, disarmed by the apparent humility of this ordinary Toulousain, with laughing eyes? The testimonials on social networks say it all about the discretion and kindness of the serial butteur.
“Free and Facetious”
The history of the Stade de Reims star with the Pink City began in 1965. Out of love, he followed Arlette, his inseparable wife, there and began his second life as a merchant, with his sports shops. Because he was the idol of a time when footballers’ salaries did not provide shelter for a lifetime. “He joked about it, by the way, saying that with his status, nowadays, he would have been a millionaire,” recalls Jean-Luc Moudenc. Justo was not a socialite, but he complied with good grace to official solicitations, when they were close to his heart. “He was a free, popular and very generous person. He could be facetious and didn’t have a big head, ”says Marc Bradfer, one of his biographers and great admirer who once campaigned for the Stadium to bear his name.
Carole Delga (PS), the president of the Occitanie region, recalls in particular her commitment to disabled sports. “Just Fontaine told stories of the ball and life with passion and humor,” she also remembers. “I had the immense privilege of knowing and appreciating the private man, his humor, his generosity, his availability”, said for his part François Briançon (PS), former elected official in charge of sports in Toulouse. More surprisingly, François Piquemal, the former coordinator of the Right to Housing in Toulouse, who became an LFI deputy, remembers his stay in a requisitioned building where he had come to greet the inhabitants.
Just Fontaine has never played under the colors of Toulouse. But he trained, for a season, US Toulouse, the ancestor of the TFC, which today says its “tremendous sadness”. As on all the lawns of France in the days to come, a minute of silence will be respected this Wednesday at the Stadium of Toulouse on the occasion of the quarter-final of the Coupe de France that the TFC is playing against Rodez. If the Toulouse enclosure does not bear the name of the illustrious scorer, the stand of honor at the foot of which must be placed a wreath, does.
The funeral of Just Fontaine must be celebrated Monday, March 6, at 2 p.m., at the Saint-Etienne cathedral in Toulouse.