Lucien Laurent (10 December 1907 – 11 April 2005) was a French

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who played as a forward. Playing for

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, at the 1930 World Cup he scored the first ever

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

goal against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Career

Laurent was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés,

Val-de-Marne Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southeast of the City of Paris. In 2019, Val-de-Marne had a p ...

, near

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He was the younger brother of Jean Laurent, who also played football and represented France and was named to the squad for the 1930 World Cup. He was also part of France's squad for the 1928 Summer Olympics, but he did not play in any matches. Between 1921 and 1930, he played for the semi-professional team Cercle Athlétique de Paris, before being taken on by

Sochaux Sochaux () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Geography Sochaux lies east of Montbéliard, and southeast of Paris. Population Inhabitants are known as ''Sochaliens''. Economy S ...

, then a workers team for the car manufacturer

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

, where he was employed. As an amateur player, he only received basic compensation from the French Football Federation while at the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay. At the

Estadio Pocitos Estadio Pocitos was a multi-use stadium located in the Pocitos district of Montevideo, Uruguay. The stadium, owned by C.A. Peñarol, was mainly used for football matches from 1921 to 1933. It was demolished later in the 1930s when Peñarol star ...

in Montevideo, Laurent made history by scoring the first ever World Cup goal: a volley in the 19th minute of a game against

on 13 July 1930.

won the game 4–1, but lost their remaining group matches to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, and were thus eliminated in the group stage. Laurent was ruled out of the third game due to an injury. Laurent was named to the French squad for the

1934 World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in ...

, but was unable to play due to an injury. He later moved to Rennes, playing for them until 1937, then for RC Strasbourg until 1939. In all, Laurent played 10 times for France, but scored only one other goal against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in May 1931. He joined the French armed forces during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, but spent three years as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

in Saxony before being released in 1943. He played two years of wartime football for

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...

before retiring in 1946, opting to become a trainer and youth coach. He was the only surviving member of the 1930 French team to see France lift the 1998 World Cup on home soil, and died seven years later at the age of 97 in

Honours

* Finalist of 1928

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

with CA Paris * Winner of the Peugeot Cup in 1931 with

FC Sochaux FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

International goals

France's goal tally first

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurent, Lucien 1907 births 2005 deaths Sportspeople from Saint-Maur-des-Fossés French footballers France international footballers FC Sochaux-Montbéliard players FC Mulhouse players Stade Rennais F.C. players RC Strasbourg Alsace players Racing Besançon players Ligue 1 players Olympic footballers of France Footballers at the 1928 Summer Olympics 1930 FIFA World Cup players 1934 FIFA World Cup players French military personnel of World War II World War II prisoners of war held by Germany French prisoners of war in World War II Club Français players Association football inside forwards Footballers from Val-de-Marne