1957 Tournoi de Paris

Tournament details
City	Paris
Dates	12 – 14 June 1957
Teams	4
Venue(s)	Parc des Princes
Final positions
Champions	Vasco da Gama
Runners-up	Real Madrid
Third place	Racing Paris
Fourth place	Rot-Weiss Essen
1958 →

The 1957 Tournoi de Paris was the first edition of Tournoi de Paris, a association football intercontinental competition between European and South American clubs. In particular, the inaugural edition is considered the precursor of the Intercontinental Cup by FIFA, ^[1] as it had the only continental champion clubs at the time ( Vasco da Gama in 1948 South American Championship and Real Madrid in 1955–56 European Cup) competing in the final. ^{[2] [3] [4]}

Vasco da Gama defeated Real Madrid 4–3 in the final in front of more than 65,000 spectators. ^{[5] [6] [7]}

Background

The competition was organized by the Racing Club de Paris in celebration of its 25th anniversary. ^[8] Real Madrid were invited to participate in the competition as 1955–56 European Cup champions, and accepted a few days before winning the 1956–57 edition. Vasco da Gama's participation took place in the midst of the club's tour of the US and Europe, with several European newspapers citing Vasco as "Brazilian champion of 1956" for having won the 1956 Campeonato Carioca (there was no national competition at the time). ^{[9] [10]} Furthermore, Vasco held the title of South American champion after winning the 1948 South American Championship of Champions and no other South American tournament of the same proportion had taken place until the 1960 Copa Libertadores. ^[11] Finally, Rot-Weiss Essen, the German champions at the time were invited, as Germany was the current champion of the FIFA World Cup. ^[11]

Teams

Team	Location	Qualification
Racing Paris	Paris	Host
Real Madrid	Madrid	1955–56 European Cup winners
Rot-Weiss Essen	Essen	1955 German football championship winners
Vasco da Gama	Rio de Janeiro	1948 South American Championship winners

Squads

Racing Paris

Source: ^[12]

Manager: Auguste Jordan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK   FRA Jean Taillandier 2 DF   ARG Carlos Sosa 3 DF   FRA Bernard Lelong 6 MF   FRA Dalla Cieca 7 FW   FRA Joël Pillard 8 DF   FRA Bruno Bollini

No. Pos. Nation Player 11 FW   FRA Pierre Grillet 14 MF   FRA Guy Sénac 17 MF   FRA Jean Guillot 18 MF   FRA Bolek Ugorenko 19 FW   POL Thadée Cisowski 21 DF   FRA Roger Marche

Real Madrid

Source: ^[13]

Manager: José Villalonga

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK   ESP Juan Alonso 2 DF   ESP Marquitos 3 DF   ESP Manuel Torres 4 DF   URU José Santamaría 6 MF   ESP José María Zárraga 7 FW   FRA Raymond Kopa 8 MF   ESP Héctor Rial

No. Pos. Nation Player 11 FW   ESP Francisco Gento 14 MF   ESP Ramón Marsal 17 MF   ESP Enrique Mateos 18 MF   ESP Miguel Muñoz 19 FW   ARG Alfredo Di Stéfano 21 DF   ESP Rafael Lesmes

Rot-Weiss Essen

Source: ^[13]

Manager: Elek Schwartz

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK   GER Fritz Herkenrath 2 DF   GER Willi Köchling 4 MF   GER Heinz Ruppenstein 5 DF   GER Walter Zastrau 6 MF   GER Dieter Wöske 9 FW   GER Franz Islacker

No. Pos. Nation Player 10 FW   GER Ulrich Kohn 18 DF   GER Heinz Wewers 20 MF   NED Fred Röhrig 21 FW   GER Helmut Rahn 24 MF   GER Willi Grewer

Vasco da Gama

Source: ^{[12] [13]}

Manager: Martim Francisco

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK   BRA Carlos Alberto 2 DF   BRA Dario Damasceno 3 DF   BRA Umbelino Viana 4 DF   BRA Orlando Peçanha 5 MF   BRA Laerte 6 DF   BRA Ortunho 7 MF   BRA Sabará

No. Pos. Nation Player 8 MF   BRA Livinho 9 FW   BRA Vavá 10 FW   BRA Pinga 11 FW   BRA Walter Marciano 17 FW   BRA Vadinho 19 FW   BRA Almir Pernambuquinho

Matches

	Semi-finals				Final
	12 June - Paris
	Vasco da Gama	3
					14 June - Paris
	Racing Paris	1
					Vasco da Gama	4
	12 June - Paris
					Real Madrid	3
	Real Madrid	5
	Rot-Weiss Essen	0
					Third place
					14 June - Paris
					Racing Paris	7
					Rot-Weiss Essen	5

Semi-finals

---

Third place match

Final

Recognitions

In a video report from Les Actualités Françaises, published on 19 June 1957 with narrated images of the match, cites the match between Vasco da Gama and Real Madrid in the final as the confrontation between "the best team in South America and the European champion". ^{[14] [15]}

After the final between Vasco da Gama and Real Madrid, the French newspaper L'Équipe wrote: " And then, suddenly, Real literally disappeared. Would it be the pale red shirts or the sad blue shorts that weakened the superb Spanish team? No. Rather, the wonderful bodies suddenly appeared on the other side, wrapped tightly in white shirts with a black stripe, of 11 football athletes, of 11 black devils who took control of the ball and never let go. During the next half hour the incredible, prodigious impression one had was that the great Real Madrid champion of Europe, the untouchable Real winner of all European constellations was learning to play football". ^[11] The newspaper France Soir stated after the tournament: "Real Madrid is not the greatest team in the world. Talk to Vasco da Gama about that", ^[16] and the Jornal dos Sports cited Vasco as "world champions". ^[17] The Spanish newspaper ABC de Madrid wrote that "Real Madrid were no longer invincible". ^[18]

According to the Brazilian newspaper Tribuna de Imprensa, the tournament inspired FIFA president João Havelange and European Cup co-founder Jacques Ferran to create the Intercontinental Cup. ^[19] In 2023, FIFA recognized as "the most notable meeting between teams from two continents meeting before 1960". ^[20]

References