 Bernat (2nd row, first from left) in 1896 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Charles Auguste Bernat | ||
| Date of birth | (1876-05-05)5 May 1876 | ||
| Place of birth | 17th arrondissement of Paris, France | ||
| Date of death | 28 December 1948(1948-12-28) (aged 72) | ||
| Place of death | 13th arrondissement of Paris, France | ||
| Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1892–1899 | Club Français | ||
| 1907 | Vieilles Gloires | +1 | (0) |
| International career | |||
| 1895–1898 | Paris XI | 2 | (0) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Charles Auguste Bernat (5 May 1876 – 28 December 1948) was a French footballer who co-founded Club Français in 1892, with whom he won the 1896 USFSA Football Championship.
Early life and education
Charles Bernat was born in Paris on 5 May 1876, as the son of Pierre Jean Baptiste Bernat (1849–1902) from Manhac and Marie Zurbuchen (1847–1905) from Berne, Switzerland.
As the son of a well-off family from the wealthy districts of Paris, he was sent to Britain for a language study trip, doing so at the Catholic St Joseph's College, Dumfries, Scotland, where he developed a deep interest in football, and where he might have met José María Barquín and Enrique Goiri, the latter being just one year younger than him, both of whom being fellow football enthusiasts from the European mainland.
Sporting career
Club Français
Shorlty after returning to Paris to complete his studies at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, he met Eugène Fraysse, who had also become a football fan while studying abroad, so they decided to join forces to import the sport into France, and together, they founded Club Français in October 1892, which was the first club reserved exclusively for the French, hence the club's name.
Club Français joined the USFSA in March 1894, and on 22 April of the same year, Bernat played as a midfielder in the semifinal of the inaugural USFSA championship, which ended in a 0–1 loss to The White Rovers. On 24 February 1895, Bernat and his teammate Fraysse 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.
Together with Lucien Huteau, Marcel Lambert, Gaston Peltier, Georges Garnier, and captain Fraysse, Bernat was a starter in the Club Français team that won the 1896 USFSA Football Championship, doing so without losing a single match. On 13 December 1898, Bernat was one of the five players from Club Français who featured in a selection of the best Parisian players from the USFSA in a friendly against a German national selection in front of 200 people; Paris lost 1–2. On 16 April 1899, he started in the play-off match against Standard AC to decide the 1898–99 USFSA Paris Championship, helping his side to a 3–2 win. In the following year, on 6 May, he started in the final of the 1900 USFSA Football Championship, which ended in a 0–1 loss to Le Havre AC.
Later career
Like so many other footballers of his time, his career came to an end with marriage, doing so in the 9th arrondissement of Paris on 5 January 1901, to the Belgian Jeanne Charlotte Goulancourt (1873–1941). Following the death of Lucien Canelle in 1905, his son Fernand took over the presidency of the Club Français, which he ran with Bernat until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
On 1 April 1907, the 31-year-old Bernat put on his boots again to serve as the captain of the so-called Vieilles Gloires ("Old Glories"), a team made up of fellow retired players from the 1890s, which included some of his former CF teammates, such as Garnier, René Ressejac-Duparc, and Ernest Weber. They faced the English club Old Etonians, and after conceding three goals in the first half, the captain Bernat made some changes at half-time, which improved the team as the game ended in a 1–4 loss. After the match, the two teams dinned together and toasted to each other, while "Miss Goulancourt of the Opera" (the alias Miss Bernat) made herself heard, and "had it not been for the fear of being indiscreet, the audience would have long requested the favor of hearing the harmonious and graceful voice of Miss Bernat".
A few days later, on 7 April, Bernat attended the final of the 1907 USFSA Football Championship between RC France and RC Roubaix, alongside other former CF players, such as Garnier and Duparc.
Rugby
At some point, Bernat became the director of the Stade Buffalo [fr] in Montrouge, which was inaugurated in 1922 and could accommodate 20,000 spectators for football or rugby union matches. Following a pioneering tour of England, Bernat filed the statutes of the "French Rugby League XIII" on 6 April 1934 in Paris, and the entity's board was then elected, with François Cadoret being appointed as president, Charles Bernat as secretary general, and Louis Delblat, new director of Stade Buffalo, as treasurer.
Later life and death
On 13 December 1915, Bernat divorced Goulancourt, and a few months later, on 25 May 1916, he married Alice Pauline Georgette Nico at the Saint-Maur-des-Fossés.
Outside football, he was a businessman and accountant. Bernat died in the 13th arrondissement of Paris on 28 December 1948, at the age of 72.
References
- ^ "Sélectionneurs des Bleus, les bonus (5/11): Eugène Fraysse" [The Blues’ selectors, the bonuses (5/11): Eugène Fraysse]. www.chroniquesbleues.fr (in French). 4 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
- ^ "Auguste Charles BERNAT". gw.geneanet.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 January 2025.
- ^ "Les premiers Bleus: Fernand Canelle, le meilleur parmi les pionniers" [The first Blues: Fernand Canelle, the best among the pioneers]. www.chroniquesbleues.fr (in French). 6 April 2023. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
- "Scottish Influence Implementing Football in Australia and France". www.scottishfootballmuseum.org.uk. 16 June 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
- "One Of The Oldest Contested Cups In World Of Football – Played For At 'St Josephs' College Dumfries". www.dgwgo.com. 13 June 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
- "Aux sombres héros de la Coupe (2/2)" [To the dark heroes of the Cup (2/2)]. www.sofoot.com (in French). 25 April 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
- "The father of French football: a tailor from Worcester". www.scottishsporthistory.com. 8 February 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
- "White Rovers contre Club Français" [White Rovers against Club Français]. babel.hathitrust.org/ (in French). 28 April 1894. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
- "Sports Athlétiques – Football". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Le Radical. 26 February 1895. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
- Denaunay, Stéphane; De Ryswick, Jacques; Cornu, Jean; Vermand, Dominique (July 1989). 100 ans de football en France [100 years of football in France] (in French). Paris: Atlas. p. 27. ISBN 9782731207434.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: checksum (help) - "Football Association – Le match Franco-Allemand" [Football Association – The Franco-German match]. www.retronews.fr (in French). Journal des sports. 13 December 1898. p. 3. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
- "Championnat de Paris - Club Français contre Standard Athletic Club" [Paris Championship - Club Français against Standard Athletic Club]. www.retronews.fr (in French). Le Journal des sports. 17 April 1899. p. 2. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
- "Championnat de France - Club Français (1) contre La Havre AC (1)" [French Championship - Club Français (1) against La Havre AC (1)]. www.retronews.fr (in French). Le Journal des sports. 7 May 1900. p. 2. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
- ^ "Les Vieux Etonians battent les Vieilles Gloires, par 4 buts à 1" [Old Etonians beats Old Glories, 4 goals to 1]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). L'Auto. 2 April 1907. p. 7. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
- "Autour des balustrades" [Around the balustrades]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). L'Auto. 8 April 1907. p. 7. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
- ^ "Rugby à XIII: La guerre des terrains (1934)" [Rugby League: The War of the Fields (1934)]. surlatouche.fr (in French). 19 November 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2024.