Paul Nicolas

Paul Nicolas lost his mother at the age of 3, and then his father in 1914. He was raised by his mother-in-law together with his brother Henri. He began his football career with Saint-Mandé Club in 1916. Initially, he played as a defender, but he quickly realized that his destiny laid at the forefront since he scored many goals. In addition to his goal-scoring instinct, Nicolas also stood out for his strong character on the pitch, and these two qualities combined eventually drew the attention of Mr. Fort, the then president of the Gallia Club, who signed him as a centre-forward in 1916. At the time, center-forwards usually were corpulent, aggressive and impetuous players, but Nicolas revolutionized the way of playing as a forward striker, imposing his talent, his skill with both feet, and intuition to position himself in the right place, thus being described as a "precursor and prototype of the modern striker, scorer at heart but just as altruistic in the last gesture". Paul Nicolas joined the army around the end of World War I, thus leaving for Paris. On 5 March 1919, while he was in the army, he met on the station platform a former brilliant captain of Red Star F.C.: Lucien Gamblin, who convinced him to join him at Red Star given his reputation as a skillful centre-forward. Nicolas proved to be a great recruitment as he went on to play a pivotal role in helping the club win the Coupe de France four times, including three in a row between 1921 and 1923, scoring once in the…

He played in 44 matches for the France national team between 1920 and 1921, scoring a then national record of 20 goals. He participated in the football tournaments of three Olympic games (1920, 1924, and 1928), scoring a total of four goals in five games, including one against Uruguay, which was the best team at the time. Despite his great performances at the Olympics, the 31-year-old Paul Nicolas failed to participate in the inaugural tournament of the World Cup in 1930 to end his magnificent international career on a high. This tally includes two hat-tricks, one in a 4–1 win over Yugoslavia on 13 June 1926, and the other to help his side to a 4–0 win over Northern Ireland on 21 February 1928. In 1919, Nicolas took part in the Inter-Allied Games in Paris, a large sports competition organized in celebration of the Allied victory in World War I, since he was a member of the military. However, the matches of the tournament are not included in the official FIFA register. Together with the likes of Lucien Gamblin and Albert Rénier, he helped France win Group A with two goals against Romania (4–0), a poker against Greece (11–0) and a decisive goal against Greece (2–0). However, he failed to score in the final as they were beaten 2–3 by Czechoslovakia.

Red Star Olympique

Coupe de France: 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1928 France

Inter-Allied Games (1919) runner-up