Maxime Jean Marcel Bossis (; born 26 June 1955) is a French retired professional

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, rugby ...

who played as a defender. Bossis spent most of his career playing for

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabit ...

, a club he helped win three

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

titles and one

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 professio ...

. He obtained 76 caps (one goal) for the French national team, won the

1984 European Football Championship The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. At the time, only eight countries ...

and played in two

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

semi-finals.

Club career

Bossis was born in Saint-André-Treize-Voies,

Vendée Vendée (; br, Vande) is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442.

. A longtime starter for FC Nantes during the club's most successful period during the 1970s and 1980s, he was noted chiefly as a full-back on the left flank, but filled in at various roles in defence. Bossis spent much of his time at right back during Nantes' championship-winning seasons in 1977 and 1980, in which

Thierry Tusseau Thierry Tusseau (born 19 January 1958) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defender. As a player of French side Girondins de Bordeaux (1983–1986), he was a member of the France national team in the 1986 FIFA World Cup a ...

normally started on the left, but made the left back position his own beginning in 1981. Bossis helped Nantes to finish first or second in every season between 1976 and 1981. The club added a third title in 1983, finishing ten points ahead of second-place Girondins Bordeaux. In 1985, Bossis moved to the ambitious RC Paris, but the Parisian club achieved only modest success in spite of heavy spending that acquired such players as

Enzo Francescoli Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961), nicknamed "El Príncipe" ("The Prince"), is a Uruguayan former footballer who played as a attacking midfielder. He is regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and as one of Uru ...

and Pierre Littbarski. Bossis returned to Nantes for one final season in 1990, lining up next to future French international

Marcel Desailly Marcel Desailly (born Odenke Abbey; 7 September 1968) is a French former professional footballer, widely considered to be among the greatest centre-backs and defensive midfielders to ever play football. During a successful career at club level, ...

before retiring from play. Bossis was named Footballer of the Year by France Football in 1979 and 1981.Garin, Erik & Pierrend, Jose Luis
"France - Footballer of the Year"
. ''

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

'', 19 December 2013. Retrieved on 5 July 2014.

International career

Bossis also represented the

France national team 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 e ...

for ten years, appearing at the 1978, 1982, and 1986 World Cups, reaching the semifinals of the latter two editions of the tournament. He is mostly remembered for missing France's last penalty in the

1982 World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 ...

semifinal against

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. While the score was tied at 4–4, Bossis missed the next penalty, allowing Horst Hrubesch to score the last penalty and send the Germans to the final. Bossis was also an important member of the France team that won the European Championship on home soil in 1984. From 1985 to 1992, he held the French record of caps, before fellow defender Manuel Amoros established a new mark with 82 caps. He also held the French record of matches played in the

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

with 15, which was subsequently surpassed by

Fabien Barthez Fabien Alain Barthez (born 28 June 1971) is a French racing driver and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. At club level, he played football in both France and England with Toulouse, Marseille, AS Monaco, Manchester Unite ...

in 2006.

Personal life

Bossis' younger brother, Joël, also played professional football and holds the all-time record for most goals scored for Chamois Niortais.

After retirement

After he retired in 1991, Bossis briefly embraced a career as a football executive, heading the

Central Commission (1993–1995) before he joined

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the ...

as sporting director (1996–1997). He then reinvented himself as a TV commentator, working first for

TPS TPS or Tps may refer to: In arts and entertainment *Télévision Par Satellite, a French satellite television company *Third-person shooter, a game genre * Torsonic Polarity Syndrome, in ''South Park'' animation * Trailer Park Sex, a band from ...

, then for Orange Sport and since 2014 for BeIn Sport.

Honours

Nantes *

: 1976–77, 1979–80, 1982–83 *

: 1978–79 France *

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...

* Artemio Franchi Trophy:

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

: third place 1986; fourth place

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., Un ...

Individual * French Player of the Year: 1979, 1981

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bossis, Maxime 1955 births Living people Sportspeople from Vendée French footballers Association football defenders France international footballers 1978 FIFA World Cup players 1982 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1984 players 1986 FIFA World Cup players UEFA European Championship-winning players FC Nantes players Racing Club de France Football players Ligue 1 players French football managers AS Saint-Étienne managers Footballers from Pays de la Loire