A soccer champion...

M. Gliszczynski

My name is Jacques Gliszczynski. I was born on 27th September 1944 in Saint-Etienne, the child of two immigrant parents. My father was a worker in a glass factory and my mother a housewife. My Dad was a big soccer fan, he even led an amateur team and this passion influenced my life a lot.

At that time, soccer was a way to have fun with your mates. The world of professional soccer was very important in our lives. Soccer didn’t have the same image as it does today; it was the opposite of what it is now.

For my fifth birthday, my uncle from Holland gave me my first soccer kit: shoes, a shirt, shorts, and a nice ball. I was so proud: I had my own football!

I played with my friends on Thursday afternoons on the derelict sites of the town. Around the age of ten I joined a soccer team. Every Sunday morning we had a game. I remember how disappointed my fellow players and I were when we lost a game…

I started to take part in competitions. I was in the final of the “Young soccer player” where I finished 29^th out of 80. I got selected to play for the national junior squad in 1963. We played in the European junior championship in England. I was seventeen. My team and I got eliminated at the beginning of the competition!

Following this experience, I was contacted by several professional soccer teams. I chose the Olympique Lyonnais; I stayed with them six years. In 1967, the OL team won the Coupe de France. I felt a lot of joy and pride; it was wonderful, I even lifted up the cup. That year was the 50th anniversary of the Coupe de France. The president, Charles de Gaulle, was in the stadium, and I shook his hand after the match. He was impressive, dressed in civilian clothes. He congratulated us all.

From 1964 to 1966, I got called up. I was in the Joinville regiment, a special group for sportsmen. We went to Tahiti and New-Caledonia for five weeks. It was a fabulous trip, I learnt so much from all the people there and from their culture. At the end of my military period, we travelled to Côte d’Ivoire.

After six years in Lyon, my wife and I left for Angouleme in Charente where my second child was born, Fabrice. I played in the soccer club there for three years. Then, we moved to Paris where I played at the Red Stars club. I then spent my last two years as a professional soccer player in Bézier.

In 1975, after twelve years of professional soccer, I changed my job and I started to be a gym teacher and a soccer coach for amateur clubs.

Today, I am retired. I take care of my grandchildren, I do a bit of sport and I travel.

The best year of my life was 1967 because I won the Coupe de France, and also, my wife and I had our first child, a girl called Laurence.

Article by Zoé ARNET