Alex Thépot

Who was Alex Thépot?

Alexis 'Alex' Thépot was a French football player. He was the goalkeeper of the French national team in the first two World Cups, 1930 and 1934.

Born in Brest, Finistère, Thépot played for the clubs Armoricaine de Brest, FEC Levallois, Red Star FC, and USL Dunkerque. After a good year with Levallois, he was selected to play his first international match against England in 1927.

From 1927 to 1935, Thépot played in 31 international matches, conceding 77 goals, and was captain of the French team 13 times. He played France's only match at the 1928 Olympic Games, a 3-4 loss to Italy.

Thépot appeared in France's first ever World Cup match against Mexico in 1930, although he had to abandon the match during the first half due to an injury, being replaced in goal by half Augustin Chantrel. Thépot would come back and play in the next two matches, but his team was unable to go past the group stage, losing to Argentina 1-0 on a late goal, and 1-0 to Chile, despite having saved a penalty kick while the match was still 0-0.