At 21 years and 9 months, Robin Risser entered the history of French football by being the 6th youngest goalkeeper to play in the Champions League, Thursday during RC Lens’ victory against Slavia Prague (2-3). The goalkeeper trained in Strasbourg follows two legends of French football: the 98 world champion Fabien Barthez and the captain of the 2018 world champions Hugo Lloris, who were also 21 years old at their respective debuts in C1.
It was on September 30, 1992 that Barthez played his first match with Bernard Tapie’s OM, a year after being thrust into the Toulouse FC goal and a few days after his arrival in Provence. The Tapie-Bernès duo (Jean-Pierre Bernès, the sports director) then chose to promote the young AriĂ©gois in goal at the expense of Pascal Olmeta, darling of the Stade VĂ©lodrome. It was therefore for a C1 meeting and more precisely the return match of the preliminary round against Glentoran, a team from Belfast.
Barthez sanctioned by Tapie
The Marseillais won 5-0 in Northern Ireland and Barthez had little pressure for his first in the second leg, won 3-0 thanks to François Omam-Biyik (6th), a return from Abédi Pelé (12th) and a final goal from Basile Boli (72nd), the hero of the final on May 26, 1993 in Munich against AC Milan (1-0). Three days later against AS Monaco (1-0), the future “Divin Chauve” was renewed as a starter and played a series of matches in French D1.
For the record, the hairy Barthez missed during the first match of the group stage of the LDC against the Rangers (2-2), on November 25 in Glasgow, and Bernard Tapie then decided on the return of Olmeta to the starting eleven. However, the Corsican fractured his fibula in training, which allowed “Fabulous Fab” Barthez to continue the season and break out into the spotlight.
