Jean-Pierre Papin

Jean-Pierre Roger Guillaume Papin (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃pjɛʁ papɛ̃]; born 5 November 1963) is a French football manager and former professional player who played as a forward, who is currently the head coach of Championnat National 3 club Marseille B. He won the Ballon d'Or in 1991.

He was included in the FIFA 100, a list of the greatest living footballers, published in 2004 for the centenary of the FIFA, signed by Pelé. He was named one of the best European footballers on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the UEFA in 2004. He is famous in particular for his first-time strikes from distance, his overhead kicks, and his volleys, which are known as Papinades. The nickname of JPP was given to him by supporters and journalists.

Trained at Jeumont, he signed his first professional contract in 1984 at Valenciennes. Recruited by Brugge, he had an excellent season, winning the Belgian Cup and being selected for the French team for the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Recruited by Marseille, he experienced the peak of his career and won Ligue 1 titles with Marseille in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992, the Coupe de France in 1989 and reached the final of the UEFA Champions League in 1991. In 1992, he was transferred the highest in the history of football, when he left Olympique de Marseille for AC Milan with whom he won Serie A in 1994 and the UEFA Champions League. He joined Bayern Munich,where he won the UEFA Cup Europa League in 1996. He returned to France, to Bordeaux, where he was a finalist in the Coupe de la ligue in 1997 and 1998 and then ended his professional career at Guingamp.

Capped 54 times, and captain 11 times, Papin played in the French team which reached the 1986 World Cup Semi final. France failed to qualify for either the 1988 European Championships or the 1990 World Cup but he was part of the team for Euro 1992. Injuries and the emergence of the Zinedine Zidane generation saw his international career come to an end in the mid-1990s. He was out of favour by Euro'96 nor was he part of the set up which won the World Cup in 1998.

In 1996, after their eight-month-old daughter was shown to have serious cerebral lesions, Jean-Pierre and his wife set up an association "Neuf de Coeur" (Nine of Hearts; Papin's shirt number was 9) to help others in that situation and, particularly, to find and apply methods to mentally and physically educate such children.