Les Rosbifs du Foot
Les Rosbifs du Foot: The Englishmen Who Came to French Football A story of pioneers and pop stars, of European bans and unlikely adventures, of the winger who became a Marseille icon and the midfielder who barely played—and of how the English crossed the Channel to find a different kind of football. Prologue: The Unlikely Migration The English invented.and codified football. They exported it to the continent, taught the French how to play, and then, for the better part of a century, largely stayed home. The Channel was a barrier, not a bridge. English footballers played in England, perhaps in Scotland, occasionally in Italy or Spain. But France? France was where the pioneers went, the adventurers, the men who sought something beyond the familiar rhythms of the Football League. And then, in the mid-1980s, something changed. A ban on English clubs playing in European competitions—imposed after the Heysel Stadium disaster of 1985—sent a generation of English stars looking for ...
