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Emile Fontaine
Emile Fontaine (2 May 1880 – unknown) was a French footballer who played as a defender for Olympique Lillois.[1] Biography Emile Fontaine was born on 2 May 1880 in Saint-Pierre, Réunion, as the youngest of nine brothers from the marriage between André Célestin Fontaine (1834–1883) and Marie Josèphe Smith (1838–).[2] He arrived in Paris around the turn of the century (1899–1901), joining the ranks of Gallia Club and becoming the club's captain by 1904, aged 24.[3] On 8 November 1903, Fontaine started in the final of the Coupe Manier in 1903 in Vincennes, in which he made a crucial tackle to prevent a goal from Nicolet to keep the match tied at 2 in an eventual extra-time victory (3–2) over CA Paris.[4] Fontaine was one of the 12 players taken to Brussels to play in France's first-ever official match against Belgium on 1 May 1904, but the national coach Robert Guérin decided to sort out who would play between him and Georges Bilot, and the latter won, so he was thus the 12th man of the first match in a time when substitutions did not exist.[3] Another source states that Fontaine became the 12th man after losing a draw in the locker room to Jacques Davy.[5][6][7] Fontaine never became an international, because he then refused selection for the return match in 1905, when he was scheduled to start ahead of Bilot; without him, France conceded 10 goals in the two matches against the Belgians, including a humiliating 0–7 loss.[3] In 1905, Fontaine helped Gallia Club win the USFSA Paris championship, and this victory qualified the club for the USFSA national championship, which they won after beating RC Roubaix 1–0 in the final at Parc des Princes on 16 April; he was decisive in Gallia's victory, not only as captain, but also as a defender, because he and his defensive partner Georges Bayrou kept a clean-sheet for over two and a half hours until a goal was finally scored around the fifth period of extra-time.[8] He then signed for Olympique Lillois, with whom he played for three years until 1908, when he decided to return to Gallia. In 1908, he was selected for the French squad that was going to compete in the football tournament of the 1908 Olympic Games in London, but Fontaine was unavailable due to military service.[1] On 18 April 1909, Fontaine started in the final of the Coupe Dewar in 1909 at Stade de Charentonneau, which ended in a 5–0 win over AS Française.[9] On 8 May 1910, he started in the final of the 1910 Coupe Dewar, which ended in a 1–3 loss to CA Paris.[10] After the First World War, Fontaine became the director of a car body shop in Paris.[11] Honours
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