Claude Papi (France) |
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Collection title
Portraits of legendary footballers
First broadcast date
2007
Abstract
Claude Papi is the greatest footballer Corsica has ever known.
He is the man of the European epic of SC Bastia in 1978.
He died before the age of 35 and remains forever the "bald divine" for the Corsicans.
Production companies
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COPEAM - Coproduction
- France Bleu Frequenza Mora - Coproduction
Primary theme
Sport and games
Credits / Cast
- De Gentile Michel - Journalist
Map locations
- France - Corsica - Bastia
Context
Claude Papi
Stéphane Mourlane
Claude Papi is the most famous Corsican player in football history. Born April 16, 1949 in Porto-Vecchio, he began his football career at the local club ASPV. Noticed by the directors of Sporting Club de Bastia (SCB), he signed his first contract as an apprentice in July 1967. Bastia had been founded in 1905, but had turned professional only since 1965, nevertheless Papi wore the blue strip when the club had one of the best French teams. He played in two French Cup finals, in 1972 (they lost 1-2 against Olympique de Marseille) and 1981 (2-1 win against AS St Etienne).
In 1977, SCB finished third in the league to qualify for the UEFA Cup. Their progress through this European competition took on the proportions of an epic. On the Old Continent that year no team had done as well as the Corsicans, with seven successive wins in their first seven games, including a resounding win in Turin against Juventus (3-2) and beating the East German team Jena (7-2) in the first leg of the quarter-final. Papi's teammates, including the French international Jean-Francois Larios, the Moroccan Merry Krimau and the Dutch Johnny Rep, bowed out in the final against PSV Eindhoven (0-0 for the first-leg match and 0-3 and for the return). At a time when French football lacked sparkle in the international arena and when television coverage was not common, the public developed a passion for Bastia. Particularly with Papi’s very technical, highly polished game, they broke with the traditional image of Corsican teams, known for their rough, uncouth game matching the bad reputation of their spectators. In Corsica, the success of SCB had a special significance, with its Moor’s head, symbol of the island, on both its shield and its strip. Indeed, the club’s European career had its political and identity dimension. Just months after the birth of the Front de libération nationale corse (FLNC), in a tense political climate against a backdrop of bombings and arrests, their success was seen by the vast majority of Corsicans as symbolizing restored dignity; proof that this community could generate the best and overcome its divisions in exceptional circumstances.
Claude Papi, who belonged to the half the team which was Corsican, embodied this island identity not only because of his sporting talent, but also because of his loyalty to his native island. He played for Bastia his entire career, refusing proposals from other clubs (Nantes, for example) and from International Soccer and Travel who invited him to move to Santa Monica in California (1980).
His talent was not fully reflected at international level, though, since he was only selected three times between 1973 and 1978. Although he took part in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, he only played once, against Hungary, a game with nothing at stake since both teams had already been eliminated. For that match Claude Papi did not even wear the French cock on his strip because the French, who were scheduled to play in white, like the Hungarians, had no second set of blue jerseys so had to play with the green and white striped shirts of a local amateur team.
Claude Papi remains a symbol of that first phase of Corsica’s professional football, for whom playing for the club was their primary objective, emotional as well as cultural.
Bibliography:
Rey Didier, La Corse et son football 1905-2000, Ajaccio, Albiana, 2003, 399 p.
