Gabriel Hanot (6 November 1889 – 10 August 1968) was a French

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

and journalist (the editor of ''

L'Équipe ''L'Équipe'' (, French for "the team") is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby, motorsport, and cycling. Its predecessor ...

''). The European Cup – which became the UEFA Champions League – was the brainchild of Hanot, as was the

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine '' France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (f ...

, an award that honours the male player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year.

Biography

He made 12 appearances for the

France national football team The France national football team (french: Équipe de France de football) represents France in men's international football matches. It is governed by the French Football Federation (FFF; ), the governing body for football in France. It is ...

, with his debut coming on 8 March 1908 against Switzerland. He was also part of France's squad for the football tournament at the 1908 Summer Olympics, but he did not play in any matches. He made another 10 appearances for them up to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. After the war he played one more time for France, as captain against Belgium on 9 March 1919. Following an aviation accident he gave up football and became a journalist. He is credited with introducing the professional championship in France, in 1932. Hanot and his colleague at ''

Jacques Ferran Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are ove ...

were the prime movers behind getting the European Cup established.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanot, Gabriel 1889 births 1968 deaths French footballers Sportspeople from Arras Footballers from Hauts-de-France France international footballers BFC Preussen players US Tourcoing FC players France national football team managers Founders of association football institutions French sports journalists French male non-fiction writers Association football fullbacks French football managers 20th-century French male writers French military personnel of World War I