The 1957 Tournoi de Paris was the first edition of Tournoi de Paris, an association football intercontinental competition between European and South American clubs. In particular, the inaugural edition is considered as the precursor to the Intercontinental Cup, as an article on FIFA. Its final match featured the only continental club champions thus far (Vasco da Gama in the 1948 South American Championship and Real Madrid in the 1955–56 European Cup), competing in the final.
Vasco da Gama defeated Real Madrid 4–3 in the final before 65,000 spectators.Le Miroir Des Sports – June 17, 1957
Background The competition was organized by the Racing Club de Paris in celebration of its 25th anniversary. Real Madrid were invited to participate in the competition as 1955–56 European Cup champions, and accepted a few days before winning the 1956–57 edition. Vasco da Gama's participation took place amidst a club's tour of the US and Europe, with several European newspapers citing Vasco as "Brazilian champion of 1956" for having won the 1956 Campeonato Carioca (there was no Brazilian national competition at the time). Furthermore, Vasco held the title of South American champion after winning the 1948 South American Championship of Champions as no other South American tournament of the same proportion took place until the 1960 Copa Libertadores. Finally, Rot-Weiss Essen, the West German champions at the time were invited, as West Germany was the current champions of the FIFA World Cup.
Teams +TeamLocationQualification Racing ParisParisHost Real MadridMadrid1955–56 European Cup winners Rot-Weiss EssenEssen1955 German football championship winners Vasco da GamaRio de Janeiro1948 South American Championship and 1956 Campeonato Carioca winners
Squads
Racing Paris Source:
Manager: Auguste Jordan
Real Madrid Source:
Manager: José Villalonga
Rot-Weiss Essen Source:
Manager: Elek Schwartz
Vasco da Gama Source:
Manager: Martim Francisco
Matches
Semi-finals
Third place match
Final
Recognitions In a video report from Les Actualités Françaises, published on 19 June 1957 with narrated images of the match, the match between Vasco da Gama and Real Madrid in the final is called "the confrontation between the best team in South America and the European champions".
After the final between Vasco da Gama and Real Madrid, French newspaper L'Équipe wrote: "And then, suddenly, Real Madrid literally disappeared. Would it be the pale red shirts or the sad blue shorts that weakened the superb Spanish team? No. Rather, wonderful bodies suddenly appeared on the other side, wrapped tightly in white shirts with a black stripe, of 11 football athletes, of 11 black devils who took control of the ball and never let go. During the next half hour the incredible, prodigious impression one had was that the great Real Madrid champion of Europe, the untouchable Real Madrid winner of all European constellations was learning to play football". The newspaper France Soir stated after the tournament: "Real Madrid is not the greatest team in the world. Talk to Vasco da Gama about that", and the Jornal dos Sports cited Vasco as "world champions". The Spanish newspaper ABC de Madrid wrote that "Real Madrid were no longer invincible".
According to the Brazilian newspaper Tribuna de Imprensa in October 1958, the idea for the conception of the Intercontinental Cup came from João Havelange, then president of CBD, and Jacques Goddet, journalist of L'Équipe and owner and resident of the Parc des Princes. According to the Le Corner, Goddet drew inspiration from the match between Vasco da Gama and Real Madrid in 1957 to conceive the Intercontinental Cup.
In 2023, a FIFA.com article mentioned the 1957 final match as "the most notable meeting between teams from two continents meeting before 1960".
References