Most of the articles about him start with the information that neither Zbigniew Boniek nor Robert Lewandowski have won the Golden Ball. In fact, no Pole has yet received it. But in 1958, this prestigious plebiscite was won by a French player of Polish origin. His name was Raymond "Kopa" Kopaszewski.

Sentenced to Kopa?
Rajmund Kopaszewski's grandparents came to France for bread. Like most Poles at the beginning of the 20th century. Emigrants from across the Vistula were most often employed in mines. The French claimed that the miner's work was too hard. Poles took it blindly, from their grandparents. The fate of the future football star's ancestors was therefore a foregone conclusion...

Rajmund's mother was French with Polish roots. His father left Poland with his parents in 1919 and they settled in Nœux-les-Mines in the Pas-de-Calais department in the north of the country. The region was a well-known Polish community. It was there that Rajmund, known to the French as Raymond, was born on 13 October 1931. He was the second child in his family.

He spent his childhood in a house next to a mine tailings pile. Nearby was a football stadium. That is where he was most often seen. There he played football with his friends, supposedly from the age of five. Then the war broke out. Northern France was under German occupation. What's more, the invaders even occupied the pitch there because they wanted to taste the sport themselves. On one occasion, young Kopaszewski rolled the ball to the soldiers. Years later he said, somewhat jokingly, that this was one of the actions of the resistance.

Being a young man, he had an extraordinary ability to get into trouble. Once he even ended up at the police station, accused of stealing a bicycle. In fact, he had an identical bike. He was released. He was mouthy. He had been saying what he thought since he was a child, rather than biting his tongue. He did not change this until his last days.

He revealed his footballing talent very quickly. At the age of eleven, he signed for the local club Noeux-les-Mines. He was good enough to play for the first team as a junior. On the pitch, he stood out for his feisty, impeccable technique and phenomenal dribbling. The miner's son made a name for himself in the local football community. But he himself, following the example of his ancestors, ended up underground. "I finally understood that the son of a Pole was there to work in the mines," he recalled.

He combined the hard work of a loader's helper with training at the club. He was a miner for almost two years. He was dismissed from the mine because of a serious accident that resulted in the amputation of his thumb. It was then that his father, distrustful at first, allowed representatives from the football clubs to approach him.

Top talent
In 1949, activists from Stade de Reims offered 80,000 francs for his son. They even prepared the relevant documents for his signature ... and then Angers SCO joined the game for the talented boy, putting 20,000 more on the table. Kopaszewski signed the deal. Delighted coach Camille Cottin, when he acquired him for his team, squealed with joy. "Here is one of the greatest talents and hopes I have ever seen!" he proclaimed to everyone.

He didn't stay long at the second division club. He played 60 games, scored 15 goals and left for Stade de Reims in 1951. The transfer was for the sum of 1.8 million francs. On this occasion, Raymond showed his nose for business. Perhaps for the first time, but certainly not the last. When the clubs came to an agreement, it was he who, urged on by his father, demanded an extra bonus for himself for his signature. The buyers had no choice. They acceded to the offer. They couldn't let such a talent go!

In Reimis, he entered the footballing salons. He became the central figure of the team and coach Albert Batteux, delighted with his dribbling skills, made him bat whenever he could. He won two national titles and made his debut for the national team. And he was no longer Kopaszewski. The French had a lot of difficulty pronouncing his real name, so they decided to make it easier for themselves. He became Kopa.

In time, he was also appreciated in Europe. In August 1955, Kopa was called up to the Rest of Europe national team, which gave a harsh football lesson to the British in Belfast (4:1). Raymond contributed to three of the team's goals. A year later he was in contention to win the first edition of the European National Champions Cup. His team faced Real Madrid. He lost 3:4. There is one interesting thread in that final. When we look at the starting line-up of Stade de Reims, there are several Polish-sounding names in it. Those who played against Real included Simon Zimny, Robert Siatka, Léon Glovacki and Kopaszewski.

"Every eighth or ninth league footballer in France is the son of Polish parents; such a statement, in any case, documented by the relevant statistics, can be found in Rene Dunan's book "Sport and its secrets", published in 1960. "Sport and its secrets", wrote Zbigniew Dudkowski in 1960.

And one more thing. Before the first whistle had blown, Kopa had signed a contract with the 'Kings'. The French did not hide their indignation. But he acted like a professional. Later, he made no secret of the fact that he was going to Spain to earn better money and be successful.

And he did. In Madrid he played alongside such kicking virtuosos as Alfredo Di Stéfano and Ferenc Puskás. During his three seasons playing for Real, he won the European Cup every year. Two national championships were added to that. He was even offered a contract extension, for five years. He didn't take it, however, because he had several interests in France. He took care of them, so he wanted to be there. He returned to Stade de Reims, where he played until 1967. He managed to win two more national titles, get relegated from the league and return to it again. With him in the line-up, the Champagne club enjoyed their greatest ever triumphs.

French representative
Good play in the league and in European arenas earned Raymond a call-up to the national team. "The 'tricolour' adventure began in 1952 with a game against Germany. Before that, he couldn't. He didn't have citizenship and French law stipulated that he could only obtain it when he turned 21.

In the national team, Kopa was a leading figure. He made his World Cup debut in 1954. In Switzerland, the French did not play a good competition, quickly saying goodbye to the tournament. But four years later things were better. First they came out of a group in which they competed against Paraguay, Yugoslavia and Scotland. In the quarter-finals, they won against Northern Ireland (4:0). The march was only stopped by the Brazilians, later world champions. After that semi-final clash, Raymond was faced with the chance to win his third world title. All he had to do was beat the Germans.

And the French did just that. Kopa played his best match at the championships. "Gazeta Krakowska" wrote as follows:

"The victory of the French team was fully deserved, They ruled the pitch indivisibly throughout the match. Only the excellent play of the NRF goalkeeper Kwiatkowski saved the team of the former world champions from a bigger defeat. The best players on the pitch were Fontaine, who scored four goals, and Kopa, who perfectly directed all the offensive actions of the French team.

Raymond Kopa played 45 games for the national team. He scored 18 goals. He was said to be the best French footballer of his time. After a successful World Cup in Sweden, he was awarded the "France Football" Golden Ball. There is no greater individual honour in the football world. He finished his career with the national team in 1962.

"Napoleon "
Kopa was an astute footballer. No matter where on the pitch the coach placed him, he almost always played maturely. When he drove the ball opponents found it very difficult to take it away from him. His turns were light and natural. On top of that, he had a great shot.

Football experts called him "Napoleon". He could control the team's actions flawlessly and had an above-average field of vision. On top of that, off the pitch he conducted himself well and was immune to injury, at least at the peak of his career. Success never turned his head. Despite time running out, hundreds of games played, he still had the same childlike passion for the game.
After hanging up his jams, he took up business. First he ran a small multi-branch shop. Then he bought a hotel.

Although he played for and lived in France, he spoke excellent Polish. He learned the language of his ancestors at home, from his parents. He used it, which did not escape his football comrades. Before the England-Rest of the World match, Czechoslovakian Josef Masopust described the coach's briefing as follows:

"It was complicated. Fernando Riera spoke Spanish, so Svatopluk Pluskal, Ján Popluhár, Lev Yashin, Milutin Šoškić and I understood little of it. But there was Raymond... He was the one who translated it all into... Polish. He knew it really well!".

In his private life, he experienced a great tragedy. He had a son Denis, who died of lymphoma, on 15 February 1963. Then his daughter Nadine suffered from breast cancer. It was for this reason that he decided to donate the copyright of his biography to an institute fighting this disease. While he was still alive, in 2004, Kopa was ranked among the best footballers in history - the 'FIFA 100'. He died on 3 March 2017 in Angers, aged 86.