René Paul Virgile Gaillard (28 July 1877 – 7 March 1943) 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, rugby lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

and who competed in the football tournament at the 1900 Olympic Games in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, winning a silver medal as a member of the

USFSA U.S. Figure Skating is the national Sports governing body, governing body for the sport of figure skating in the United States. It is recognized as such by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) under the Amateur Sports Act of 1 ...

Olympic team representing France, which was primarily made up of

Club Français Club Français was a French association football club based in Paris which was founded in 1890. Club Français won the 1896 USFSA Football Championship and the 1931 Coupe de France. In 1900 the USFSA elected players from Club Français to r ...

players.

Playing career

Club career

On 25 April 1897, Gaillard started in the final of the inaugural

Coupe Manier The Coupe Manier was a Association football, football competition in France that ran from 1897 until 1911. Only clubs that fielded no more than three foreigners were allowed to participate in the competition, which at the time was mainly British p ...

against the newly crowded champions of France Standard AC, helping his side to a 4–3 win after

extra-time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

. A few months later, on 26 December, he started as a defender in the very first football match in the history of the

Parc des Princes The Parc des Princes (, ) is an all-seater stadium, all-seater football stadium in Paris, France. It is located in the south-west of the French capital, inside the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th arrondissement, near the Stade Jean-Bouin (P ...

in front of 500 spectators, in which Club Français was defeated 1–3 by the English Ramblers. In the following year, on 3 April, he sustained an injury during the first half of the final of the 1898 USFSA Football Championship against Standard AC at

Courbevoie Courbevoie () is a Communes of France, commune located in the Hauts-de-Seine department of the Île-de-France region of France. It is a suburb of Paris, from the Kilometre zero, center of Paris. The centre of Courbevoie is situated from the ci ...

, which affected his play for the rest of the game and contributed to the team's eventual 2–3 loss. On 6 May 1900, Gaillard started in the final of the 1900 USFSA Football Championship against

Le Havre AC Le Havre Athletic Club () is a French professional association football club based in Le Havre, Normandy. The football club was founded in 1894 as a section of the sports club of the same name, founded in 1884. Le Havre plays in Ligue 1, the ...

, and even though he "worked wonders after wonders", Club Français lost 0–1. On 1 April 1907, the former players of Club Français, who had been retired for years, came together to play a match for the so-called ''Vieilles Gloires'' ("Old Glories"), including the 30-year-old Gaillard, who "left his rabbits and chickens to come and train, but ended up not playing due to injury.

International career

Gaillard was listed as a midfielder for the

team at the 1900 Olympic Games. He was selected for both matches, which ended in a 0–4 loss to Upton Park on 20 September, and in a 6–2 win over a team representing

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

three days later. The French team came second and Gaillard was thus awarded with a silver medal.

Later life

Gaillard died in

18th arrondissement of Paris The 18th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements, or administrative districts, of Paris, the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as '' ...

on 7 March 1943, at the age of 65.

Honours

Club

;Club Français * USFSA Paris Championship: **Champions (2): 1898–99 and 1899–1900 *

USFSA Football Championship U.S. Figure Skating is the national Sports governing body, governing body for the sport of figure skating in the United States. It is recognized as such by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) under the Amateur Sports Act of 1 ...

: **Runner-up (3):

1898 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen ...

1899 Events January * January 1 ** Spanish rule formally ends in Cuba with the cession of Spanish sovereignty to the U.S., concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (February 1899), p ...

and

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15 ...

: **Champions (1): 1897

International

; France MNT *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

: **Silver medal (1):

References

External links

* 1877 births 1943 deaths French men's footballers Olympic silver medalists for France Olympic footballers for France Footballers at the 1900 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1900 Summer Olympics Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Paris Place of death missing Club Français players {{France-footy-midfielder-stub