He competed in the football tournament at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, winning a silver medal as a member of the USFSA Olympic team representing France, which was primarily made up of Club Français players.[2][3]
Early life and education
Jean Eugène Fraysse was born in the 18th arrondissement of Paris on 4 May 1870,[1][4][a] as the son of a well-off family from the wealthy districts of Paris, and therefore, he was sent to Britain to complete his studies.[1] During his four years there, he developed a deep interest in football, so when he returned to Paris in the summer of 1892, he decided to found a football club.[1]
Club career
Founding Club Français
Upon his return to Paris, Fraysse eventually met fellow countrymen Charles Bernat, who had also become a football fan during his language study trip across the English Channel, so they decided to join forces to import the sport into France, and together, they founded Club Français in October 1892.[1][5][6] While most of the clubs in France founded in the 19th century were the creation of the British who had left their homeland, the Club Français was the work of two Frenchman, becoming the first club reserved exclusively for the French, hence its name.[5]
Shortly after its foundation, Fraysse argued with the captain of Standard Athletic Club, Philip Tomalin, which resulted in a match between their clubs on 1 November 1892.[1] Without a designated field, Club Français was forced to tour the several stadiums of western Paris during its first years of existence,[5] but even though the club was constantly changing fields, CF's position remained solid, even institutionally, because many of its members were sitting on the USFSA Football Commission or ensuring media coverage like Weber or André Saint-Ignan.[7]
In 1894, he was appointed vice-president and captain of Club Français.[1] In November 1894, Fraysse became president of the (Football) Association Commission of the USFSA.[1] On 17 February 1895, he attended the annual gala dinner of The White Rovers held by its founding president William Sleator, who welcomed the visiting clubs, and Fraysse responded to the "toast" by replying on behalf of the Club Français.[1]
Pioneering matches
Fraysse (seated on the floor, first from right) featured in the Club Français team that won the 1896 championship of France.
Fraysse (seated on the floor, first from right) with Club Français at the Parc des Princes on 26 December 1897.
In December 1896, Fraysse captained the first exclusively French selection against the English Ramblers, a motley selection of Englishmen on tour,[1][9] and then did it again on 26 December 1897, in which was the very first football match in the history of the Parc des Princes in front of 500 spectators, leading Club Français to a 1–3 loss to the English Ramblers.[12] During the match, he became a little dizzy after falling against a post, and missed several chances, and after the match, it was said that he had imagined having played a championship match and was therefore sad.[12]
In the following year, on 16 April 1899, he started in the play-off match against Standard AC to decide the 1898–99 USFSA Paris championship, assisting two goals to help his side to a 3–2 win.[15] This victory qualified the club to the 1899 USFSA national championship, in which Club Français withdrew from the final before facing Le Havre AC.[16]
Later career
In 1899, the 29-year-old Fraysse moved to Racing Club de France, where he retired in 1901, aged 31.[1] In the following year, Fraysse co-financed the purchase of a 30-hectare plot of land in Vésinet, to install fields and changing rooms for the Club Français, of which he was still president.[1]
According to his former teammate Ernest Weber, one of the first CF members who later became a renowned journalist for L'Auto (the forerunner of L'Équipe), Fraysse was "loud-mouthed, abrupt, violent", but also an exciting leader of men and a great team captain.[1] On 1 April 1907, several former players from the 1890s, who had been retired for years, came together to play a friendly match for the so-called Vieilles Gloires ("Old Glories"), including the 36-year-old Fraysse, who thus reunited with his fellow CF founders Bernat and Weber, even writing a letter for the latter "overwhelming him with reproaches".[17] A few days later, Weber wrote an article about their reunion, referring to him as "Eugène Cresson", and stating that "he wanted to talk about the Club Français and its founders, and was surprised by my lack of memory", and then added that the first players of CF "produced a beautiful series of efforts and showed a magnificent disinterested ardor, who ensured the success of association football from its beginnings in France".[17]
International career
Fraysse (2nd row, second from the right) with the French team at the 1900 Olympics.
The French champions in 1899 and 1900, Havre AC, were not willing to participate in the 1900 Olympic Games, so the USFSA asked for the runners-up Club Français to participate, possibly to also attract more spectators and keep down expenses, and the three guest players were Fraysse of Racing Club de France, who also played a leading role within the USFSA as the head of its Association Commission, and his Racing teammates Peltier and René Ressejac-Duparc.[9][18] At the time, the figure of the coach as we know it today did not yet exist, so it was the duty of the captain, Fraysse, to dictate the tactics to be followed and making up the line-ups, and he chose to align, not a heterogeneous selection as in 1896 against the English Ramblers, but a reinforced club, to ensure the cohesion of the team.[9] Furthermore, Fraysse was responsible, along with Léopold Alibert and Neville Tunmer, for training the French team, in which he also played; a sort of player-coach.[19]
Fraysse was listed as a forward for the USFSA team at the 1900 Olympic Games.[20][21] Fraysse captained the French team in its opening match against Upton Park on 20 September, which ended in a humiliating 0–4 loss, thus becoming the first captain of a French national team.[18][22] The French team came second and Fraysse was thus awarded with a silver medal.[2][3]
Later life
Fraysse distanced himself from football in 1903, and he later got involved in tennis and even Basque pelota.[1] He became the owner of the tennis courts of rue Delaizementin at the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and in August 1903, he allowed those courts to be used for the tennis championship of the Club Français.[1] It was also in the 16th, rue Borghese, that Fraysse opened a Fronton de pelota basque in 1903.[1]
Writing career
Fraysse wrote in collaboration with the Englishman Alfred Tunmer (former player of the Standard AC) and his brother Neville, the first French work devoted to association football, called Football Association, which was published in 1897 by Armand Colin (followed by several re-editions until 1913).[23] Fraysse and Neville, who had coached the French team at the 1900 Olympics, described the football team as a military squadron under the orders of its officer, stating that "the many qualities that a player must possess to properly fulfill the functions of captain are the same required of a general; his team is a small army that he must know how to command, instruct and lead, and the team must have unlimited confidence in him".[23]
Death and legacy
Fraysse died in the 16th arrondissement of Paris on 1 May 1950, just three days short of his 80th birthday.[2][3][1]
On 12 November 2020, Pierre Cazal published his book called Sélectionneurs des Bleus: De Fraysse à Deschamps (The managers of the Bleus: From Fraysse to Deschamps), which relates the chronology of the several managers of the French team.[19]
^Some sources wrongly claim that he was born on 24 August 1879, due to a confusion with a certain Maurice-Eugène Fraysse, the son of an undeclared father who was recognized by his mother, Florentine-Pétronille Fraysse, a seamstress.[1][2]
Bibliography
Sorez, Julien (2013). Le football dans Paris et ses banlieues [Football in Paris and its suburbs] (in French). Paris: Presses universitaires de Rennes. p. 410. ISBN978-2-7535264-3-3.
Denaunay, Stéphane; De Ryswick, Jacques; Cornu, Jean; Vermand, Dominique (July 1989). 100 ans de football en France [100 years of football in France] (in French). Paris: Atlas. p. 27. ISBN978-27312136-5-2.
^ abc"Aux sombres héros de la Coupe (2/2)" [To the dark heroes of the Cup (2/2)]. www.sofoot.com (in French). 25 April 2017. Archived from the original on 19 April 2024. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
^"White Rovers contre Club Français" [White Rovers against Club Français]. babel.hathitrust.org/ (in French). 28 April 1894. Archived from the original on 25 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
^ ab"Ramblers contre Club Français" [Ramblers against Club Français]. www.retronews.fr (in French). Le Journal des sports. 27 December 1897. p. 1. Archived from the original on 13 November 2024. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
^"La Coupe Manier". www.retronews.fr (in French). Le Journal des sports. 28 March 1898. p. 2. Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
^"Le Championnat de France - Victoirie du Standard" [The French Championship - Victory of Standard]. www.retronews.fr (in French). Le Journal des sports. 4 April 1898. p. 2. Archived from the original on 13 November 2024. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
^ ab"Endons à César..." [Let us give credit to Caesar...]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). L'Auto. 5 April 1907. p. 7. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
^ ab"1900 - Paris". www.iffhs.de. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ ab"Sélectionneurs des Bleus: ruptures et héritages" [The French national team's coaches: ruptures and legacies]. www.chroniquesbleues.fr (in French). 9 November 2020. Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
