Bernard Lacombe, legend of Lyonnais football, is dead – Liberation
He knew almost everything. The legend of Lyonnais football Bernard Lacombe died at 72 this Tuesday, June 17, learned our colleagues of Progress. According to the Parisian, He is the president of Variety Football Club, Jacques Vendroux, who announced the news, at the request of the family.
Olympique Lyonnais has also confirmed information on X. “All our thoughts go to his family and loved ones, but also lovers of Olympique Lyonnais and football. Farewell Bernard, you were our legend, the greatest of all. ”
Born in Villefranche-sur-Saône, Bernard Lacombe had been international 38 times. For the youngest generation, he mainly represents the special advisor to Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas in the early 2000s, at the time when OL won all national titles and tuned European summits.
Second best scorer in the history of the French championship (255 goals in 497 games) behind the Argentinian Delio Onnis (299 goals), this outstanding finisher embodied better than anyone with an instinctive and clinical center, archetype of the archetype « Surface fox » Despite its relatively modest size (1.71 m).
This role of complete center-center, Bernard Lacombe, who was born on August 15, 1952 in Villefranche-sur-Saône, put it at the service of the collective during the 1984 Euro: no goal scored during the tournament but a decisive performance in the final, when he obtained the free kick allowing Michel Platini to open the scoring against Spain (final victory 2-0). This match was his last in blue (12 goals out of his 38 selections) and the apotheosis of an international career punctuated by two participations in the World Cup (1978, 1982), despite the criticisms that sometimes escorted him in the selection.
« In my role of scorer, I may not have given complete satisfaction, but it still seems to me that I have sacrificed myself very much for the community, he estimated. I regret a bit of the detrimental lack of confidence that we make to the center-forward. However, who can say that it is not the most ungrateful position to hold? ”
Bernard Lacombe held and embodied this position to perfection, in Lyon (1967-1978), briefly in Saint-Etienne (1978-1979) then in Bordeaux, where he ended his player career (1979-1987).
But it was at Olympique Lyonnais that the links were the strongest, because Lacombe experienced all the roles, from player to manager, in what he described as « His heart club forever ».
Arrived at OL in 1967, at 15, from the CS Fontaines-sur-Saône (Rhône) and aligned with professionals for the first time at 17 years on December 7, 1969 against the Red Star with a key goal (2-0 victory), Lacombe left for the first time in 1978. Ten years later, he returned to the staff and management this time, until 2019, when he took a step back.
