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Sixty years ago today the French author Albert Camus was killed in a car crash, aged 46. He had won the Nobel Prize for Literature and will always be considered an intellectual giant, but in a sporting context he is remembered best for his quote on football: 'Everything I know most surely about morality and duty, I owe to football'.
The philosophical quote came at the end of an article he had written, and which really only came to widespread notice on its second publication. As a youth, he had been an enthusiastic and talented goalkeeper in his native Algeria with a junior team of RUA (Racing Universitaire d'Alger). He was forced to give up the game aged 17 when he contracted tuberculosis, but remained a great fan of the sport throughout his life. When he moved to Paris he supported Racing Club de Paris, purely because they played in blue and white hoops, the same strip as his old club.
His strong affection for RUA was such that he wrote a lengthy article for the club magazine in April 1953. Then, when he won the Nobel Prize, the weekly magazine France Football asked him to contribute a piece but he was short of time so he simply submitted the old article: you can read it here. It was so impressive that it took over the whole of the back page of the issue of 17 December 1957, which had a picture of Alfredo di Stefano on the cover to mark his selection as European Footballer on the Year. This edition of France Football is now a real collector's item.
The philosophical quote came at the end of an article he had written, and which really only came to widespread notice on its second publication. As a youth, he had been an enthusiastic and talented goalkeeper in his native Algeria with a junior team of RUA (Racing Universitaire d'Alger). He was forced to give up the game aged 17 when he contracted tuberculosis, but remained a great fan of the sport throughout his life. When he moved to Paris he supported Racing Club de Paris, purely because they played in blue and white hoops, the same strip as his old club.
His strong affection for RUA was such that he wrote a lengthy article for the club magazine in April 1953. Then, when he won the Nobel Prize, the weekly magazine France Football asked him to contribute a piece but he was short of time so he simply submitted the old article: you can read it here. It was so impressive that it took over the whole of the back page of the issue of 17 December 1957, which had a picture of Alfredo di Stefano on the cover to mark his selection as European Footballer on the Year. This edition of France Football is now a real collector's item.
Albert Camus (front, with cap) was a goalkeeper for Racing Universitaire d'Alger in his youth
A couple of years later, Camus reinforced his point in an interview: 'What little I know about morality, I learned it on football pitches and theatre stages - these were my true universities.'
Football intellectuals are ten-a-penny these days, but in the 1950s Albert Camus was a trailblazer for the 'socceratis' to follow, and for that he deserves enormous respect.
Football intellectuals are ten-a-penny these days, but in the 1950s Albert Camus was a trailblazer for the 'socceratis' to follow, and for that he deserves enormous respect.
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