CB writes…
I love vintage team photos. They’re often absolutely hilarious in a ‘does anyone actually know what’s going on here?’ organised chaos kind of a way. Most of the players tend to look extremely uncomfortable in front of the official photographer, in a fashion familiar to most of us from school photos.
Indeed, there’s usually someone in the line up photo with their eyes closed or pulling a daft face or staring at something random completely off camera. And the kits are invariably great, even if they do sometimes make the team look like it’s heading out to play a few sets of tennis instead of a World Cup group match.
This photo (above) of the France team at the first ever World Cup in 1930 is especially interesting, as it features a player we have met before – Lucien Laurent, scorer of the first ever World Cup goal in the first ever World Cup match.
(Incidentally, there is also another interesting presence here: that of the French captain Alex Villaplane, whose life took a downward turn over the decade and a half following the 1930 tournament, ending in his execution for collaborating with the Nazis during World War Two.)
Laurent’s France didn’t get out of the group stage in 1930, but now, more than ninety years later, the French, led by Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, go into the final later today with the aim of winning back-to-back World Cups (which would be their third in total).
And it’s not just the French who have posed for fantastic vintage team photos either. This year’s finalists have much World Cup history between them, going back a long way. Indeed, France’s victorious opponents in that 1930 group game mentioned above were Argentina (who lost in that year’s final to the hosts), and it will be the Albiceleste they will face again in the 2022 final.
Here’s the fantastic line-up photo from the Argentinians famous home soil final victory against a superb Netherlands side in 1978 (above – just check out those training tops!). And, of course, the Dutch are the team Argentina knocked out in a fractious quarter final game this time round too. Add to that the presence of the immortal Ossie Ardiles (fourth right), and this seemed the perfect picture!
Argentina’s victory over France in the 1930 World Cup helped to send the French home, albeit with Laurent’s untouchable goalscoring record tucked safely in their kitbags, and it wasn’t until 1998 that they finally won that coveted trophy, much to his delight. Today, both teams will be battling for their third World Cup title, aiming to write a new page in the history of the tournament…
'And still Ricky Villa...' 