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Born Raymond Kopszewski on 13 October 1931 to a Polish immigrant family in the mining area of Northern France. This part of the country attracted many migrant workers from the old Eastern Block, and Kopa's grand parents and parents moved to the town of Noeux in 1924 where he grew up and eventually went to work down the mines at age 14. His name was later contracted to Kopa to make it easy for the French people to pronounce.

He practised and played football in his spare time perfecting his dribbling ability which aroused much criticism from the French media during his early professional years and was accused of “playing like a Brazilian”. This feature of his game was eventually to make him one of the all time legends of football. His small stature gave him excellent balance, and his resultant low centre of gravity made it difficult for opposing players to dislodge him from the ball. He also possessed an uncanny ability to suddenly appear in the opponents box just at the right moment which earned him early recognition.

Local team, Racing Club de Lens, let this blossoming talent pass them by, and he signed for the French second division side Angers SCO at 17-years-old. His creative attacking midfield skills earned him 15 goals in sixty appearances during his early career at Angers. Albert Batteux, ex-midfielder and Stade Reims manager bought Kopa to the champagne region in 1951. Raymond won the French Championship twice 1953 and 1955 wearing the red shirt of Reims.

During his second year at Stade Reims he took to the pitch for France in 1952 and helped defeat Germany 3-1 at home. During his international career, he went on to win 45 caps playing for his country scoring 18 international goals along the way. He featured in the 1954 and 1958 World Cup Tournament Finals. France finished third in the 58 tournament in Sweden with Kopa setting up most of team mate Just Fontaine's 13 goals and was the star player at that World Cup and finishing an already successful season as European Footballer of the year.

The “Napoleon of Football” as he was fondly being called joined the Spanish giants Real Madrid in 1956 to ply his trade in La Liga where his team mates included the likes of Puskas and di Stefano in one of the best teams the world had ever seen. The Bernabeu faithful were electrified as they went onto win the European Cup three times in succession in 1957/8/9 making him the first French football player to win the coveted European Cup the last of which was against his previous club Stade de Reims. Real won the Spanish title in 1958 and again in 59, and were truly momentous during those three glorious years.
He returned to France to play once again for his old club Reims in 1959 where he would remain until the end of his professional career in 1967.

He found notoriety off the pitch when he and a small number of French International Footballers joined 800,000 students and workers in May 1968 on the streets of Paris protesting against the de Gaulle's police state. He ended his career amid much controversy fighting for the rights of French football players. At that time clubs had property rights over players until they were 34-years-old meaning players could only break free of their contracts with the club's agreement. Kopa was extraordinary on and off the pitch and was instrumental in improving the rights of players.

There is no greater an honour for a citizen of France than to be awarded the Legion d'Honneur originally established by Napoleon himself. It was unheard of for this award to go to a footballer especially one from a Polish immigrant family. But France honoured Raymond Kopa in 1931 for his services to French Football with this prestigious award. More recently he proudly received the 2006 Golden Foot Award for his outstanding contribution to the beautiful Game.

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