The footballer and his band of killers
Alexandre Villaplane and the 'Phalange nord-africaine' in the Dordogne. Alexandre Villaplane described the day he led the French national football team against Mexico in the inaugural FIFA World Cup as “the best day of my life.” The ‘Platini of the late 1920s’ was a player of immense talent, sought after by big French clubs just as the game was becoming openly professional. Born in Algeria in 1905, Villaplane was the first player of North African origin to represent France an