Robert LEMAÎTRE

Robert Lemaître was born in the Côtes d'Armor region of France. He started his professional career with Stade Rennais in 1951. He was solid and an impressively athletic defender, and he soon established himself as first-choice at left-back in the Rennes defence, making a total of 60 matches during the two seasons he spent at the club. A talented player, he was picked up by Lille in 1953, and he signed for the club in the North of France. With Lille, he won the French League Championship in 1954, and the French Cup in 1955, albeit he also suffered relegation to the Second Division in his last season with the club. His good performances up North, gave him the the opportunity to play for France, gaining his first cap for the national team at the end of 1953, on 17th December 1953. The game was a qualifier for the 1954 World Cup, which France won 8-0 against Luxembourg, and he was even named skipper for the game. He would only gain one more cap thereafter, on 30th May 1954, in a 3-3 draw with Belgium, alongside a future Rennes player, Antoine Cuissard, who was captain that day. After three years with Lille, Lemaître would sign for Le Havre in the Second Division, where he spent a season in the Second Division, and then moved on to Bordeaux and Roubaix-Tourcoing, where he ended his career in the role of Player/Manager. As a defender, he still managed to score 27 goals in his career. At the beginning of the 1960s, he moved to Belgium, where he managed UR Namur in their Second Division, and ended up coaching some less well-known sides.