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Just Fontaine scored 13 goals in the 1958 FIFA World Cup over six matches – a record that still stands.

One of the standout players in this year’s FIFA World Cup wasn’t expected to be a star of the tournament, let alone one of the tournament’s leading scorers.

Karim Benzema, the reigning UEFA Player of the Year and the Ballon d'Or honoree, was slated to be the center of the French attack. The Real Madrid striker was with the team in Qatar until a muscle injury in training back on November 19 ended his tournament before it began. His recovery was estimated at three weeks and this week media around the world have reported that he is now fully healthy and could be available by the rules as France never replaced him on the squad.

That doesn’t seem to be likely. Even if the star striker is now available, though he would not be match fit, and wasn’t in Qatar according to the reports. Why would French coach Didier Deschamps fix a wheel that isn’t broken. Olivier Giroud, the former Arsenal and Chelsea forward now at AC Milan, has been exceptional, scoring four goals for Les Bleus including the game-winning header against England in the quarterfinal. Argentina’s Julian Alvarez, who scored two in the semifinal win over Croatia also has four.

All he does is score
Now 36, Giroud was a consistent scorer for Arsenal with 73 goals in 180 games from 2012 to 2018. After the Gunners let him go, he scored 17 goals over 75 matches for Chelsea from 2018 to 2021 before leaving to Serie A side AC Milan where he has 16 goals in 42 games.

He is now France’s career leading scorer with 53 goals in 116 appearances for the national team, passing Thierry Henry, who had 51 goals in 123 games. Current teammates Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe, who turns 24 on December 20, two days after the Sunday final, have 42 and 33 respectively. Benzema has 37 goals in 97 appearances.

Giroud’s ascent from a projected substitute to starter is reminiscent of one of France’s all-time soccer legends whose heroics date back to the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, one best known for the debut of a 17-year-old Pele and the emergence of Brazil as a dominant soccer nation.

That's when Just Fontaine (pronounced Joost), a French player of Moroccan birth – coincidentally the team that France will play in Wednesday’s semifinal – set the record that still stands today of 13 goals in a single World Cup. He did that in just six games.

I had the honor to meet Fontaine at the 1990 World Cup in Italy when our paths crossed at the main press center in Rome. I was already well-versed in his legend, and he was pleasantly surprised that a young American even knew who he was.  Of course, I did. Everyone should.

The first-choice center forward for France leading into the 1958 tournament was Raymond Kopa who had been his teammate at Stade de Reims before leaving to Real Madrid. Also ahead of Fontaine was his current Reims partner Rene Bliard. When Bliard was injured, Fontaine was paired with Kopa who became the assist machine to many of his tallies. He eclipsed the 11 goals scored by Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis at the 1954 World Cup.

Since West Germany’s Gerd Muller was the leading scorer with 10 goals at the 1970 World Cup, no one has scored more than eight times in a single tournament. That was the first Ronaldo, the Brazilian version, in 2002 over seven matches, the maximum one can play from group rounds to a final (or third place game).

England’s Harry Kane led with six in 2018, Colombia’s James Rodriguez had six in 2014.

Another German, Miroslav Klose holds the record for the most goals scored in multiple World Cups, netting 16 goals across four campaigns, followed by Brazilian Ronaldo, with 15.

Fun fact: the Golden Boot award at World Cups only started officially from 1982. It was known as the Golden Shoe. The top scorers at previous World Cup editions are also recognized as Golden Boot winners.

The current Ronaldo of fame, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, became the first player to score in five consecutive World Cups beginning in 2006, when he scored from the penalty spot in the first game against Qatar. He has eight World Cup goals.

Scoring was Fontaine's thing. He notched an incredible 30 goals in 21 matches for France over seven years on the national team.

Here's how Fontaine's record 13 goals were tallied:

• Three in 7-3 win over Paraguay

• Two in 2-3 loss to Yugoslavia

• One in 2-1 win over Scotland

• Two in 4-0 quarterfinal win over Northern Ireland

• One in 2-5 semifinal loss to Brazil

• Four in 6-3 third place win over West Germany

You can see highlights of Just Fontaine’s 1958 World Cup goals here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74Z6ysO7GzQ

After breaking his leg twice in nine months, Fontaine retired in 1960 at age 28. He managed the France national team for two matches in 1967, and then coached his native Morocco, a third-place finish in the 1980 African Cup of Nations, and the final stage of 1982 World Cup qualifying, losing out to Cameroon.

Argy Bargy
Argentina’s semifinal win was comprehensive with the South American’s clearly superior to a very strong Croatian side. Their talisman Lionel Messi, 35, who tied Germany’s Lothar Matthaus with 25 career men's World Cup appearances, the most ever, proved once again the breadth and depth of his genius with the effort, determination, and accuracy of his assist to Alvarez on the third goal.

You can see it here: https://twitter.com/ConnorKalopsis/status/1602764555310047235

Messi is also the first player to assist five goals in the World Cup knockout stages since statisticians Opta began recording such data in 1966.

With his penalty kick goal in the 34th minute, Messi became Argentina’s all-time leading scorer in World Cup play with 11 goals in five tournaments, surpassing Gabriel Batistuta who had 10 in three tournaments.

Le flu for Les Bleus?
Fox Sports reported during the Tuesday semifinal that France are at risk of missing two key players for their World Cup semi-final against Morocco, with centerback Dayot Upamecano and midfielder Adrien Rabiot sitting out training due to illness. Both have started every game in this tournament.

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