Eugène Fraysse

[1] Upon his return to Paris, Fraysse eventually met fellow countrymen Charles Bernat, who had also become a football fan during his language study trip across the English Channel, so they decided to join forces to import the sport into France, and together, they founded Club Français in October 1892.

[8] On 24 February 1895, Fraysse and his teammate Bernat were the only Frenchman selected to play for the first representative team of Paris in a friendly match against the London-based Folkestone at the soggy pitch of the Seine Velodrome, which ended in a 0–3 loss.

[13] On 25 April 1897, he started in the final of the inaugural Coupe Manier against the newly crowded champions of France Standard AC, converting a penalty in the first-half, netting a late equaliser to make it 3–3, and then completing his hat-trick with a long shot in extra-time to seal a 4–3 victory to his side.

[16] In the following year, on 16 April 1899, he started in the play-off match against Standard AC to decide the 1898–99 USFSA Paris championship, assisting two goals to help his side to a 3–2 win.

[1] According to his former teammate Ernest Weber, one of the first CF members who later became a renowned journalist for L'Auto (the forerunner of L'Équipe), Fraysse was "loud-mouthed, abrupt, violent", but also an exciting leader of men and a great team captain.

[1] On 1 April 1907, several former players from the 1890s, who had been retired for years, came together to play a friendly match for the so-called Vieilles Gloires ("Old Glories"), including the 36-year-old Fraysse, who thus reunited with his fellow CF founders Bernat and Weber, even writing a letter for the latter "overwhelming him with reproaches".

[19] A few days later, Weber wrote an article about their reunion, referring to him as "Eugène Cresson", and stating that "he wanted to talk about the Club Français and its founders, and was surprised by my lack of memory", and then added that the first players of CF "produced a beautiful series of efforts and showed a magnificent disinterested ardor, who ensured the success of association football from its beginnings in France".

[9][20] At the time, the figure of the coach as we know it today did not yet exist, so it was the duty of the captain, Fraysse, to dictate the tactics to be followed and making up the line-ups, and he chose to align, not a heterogeneous selection as in 1896 against the English Ramblers, but a reinforced club, to ensure the cohesion of the team.

Fraysse (seated on the floor, first from right) featured in the Club Français team that won the 1896 championship of France.
Fraysse (seated on the floor, first from right) with Club Français at the Parc des Princes on 26 December 1897.
Fraysse (2nd row, second from the right) with the French team at the 1900 Olympics.