In 1956 he was tranferred to Real Madrid alongside Puskas and di Stefano part of an outstanding team that was Spanish Champions and then European Champions when the European Cup was started. he was known as Koipta.
His family (Kopaszweski) migrated from Poland to France after the First World War and his father worked in the coalmines of the north east. He and his brother played local football and "found" his first football whilst German soldiers played football on the local pitch. He then worked in the mines until a rockfall injured his hand and he had to find other work, signing for SCO Angers a local Second Division side. As he became an outstanding player, he was sold to Stade de Reims in 1951, a club in the heart of the Champagne country; the club was known to play champagne football. As an obsessive "dribbler" he was soon chastised and told to change his ways otherwise he would be dropped.
Rather like Jimmy Hill (not in the footballing ability sense) Kopa co-founded the "Players' Union" in 1963 as he regarded footballers as being exploited like slaves; for his various demonstrations he was banned for 6 months. He continued his campaign and in 1968 there was a players strike; a year later the system changed in favour of the footballers.
On the field he starred with Reims but lost in the first ever European Cup Final (1956) to Real Madrid 4-3. The following year Real Madrid snapped him up and he scored against Manchester United in the next European Cup semi-final at Old Trafford, knocking out Matt Busby's blossoming side.
Despite Kopa's successful allegiance with Fontaine, the French team lost to Pele's hat trick and Brazil in the World Cup semi-final 5-2 in 1958 but the French then demolished West Germany 6-3 for third place. After this he was voted European Player of the Year Ballon d'Or). Kopa retired in 1964 and ran the Kopa Sportswear brand.
Raymond Kopa died on March 3rd aged 85. He is on the left as you look...name the others from Real Madrid 1958?
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