Louis Bach

Louis Bach

File:France football 1900.jpg Bach (standing, third from left) with the French team at the 1900 Olympics
Personal information
Full name	Louis Désiré Bach
Date of birth	(1883-04-14)14 April 1883
Place of birth	10th arrondissement of Paris, France
Date of death	16 September 1914(1914-09-16) (aged 31)
Place of death	Servon-Melzicourt, Marne, France
Position	Defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1897–1901	Club Français
International career
1900	France (Olympic)	2	(+0)
Medal record Men's football Representing France Football at the Summer Olympics Silver medal – second place 1900 Paris Team Competition
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Louis Désiré Bach (14 April 1883 – 16 September 1914) was a French footballer who played as a defender and who competed in the football tournament at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, winning a silver medal as a member of the USFSA Olympic team representing France, which was primarily made up of Club Français players.

Playing career

Club career

File:Le Club Français, champion de Paris de football en 1899.jpg

Bach (standing, third from the right) with Club Français in 1899.

Louis Bach was born in 10th arrondissement of Paris on 14 April 1883, and he began his football career at his hometown team, Club Français. On 23 October 1899, the 16-year-old Bach started in the 1899 Coupe Manier final at Suresnes, helping his side to a 6–0 win over RC Roubaix. Bach was a member of the Club Français team that won the 1899–1900 USFSA Paris championship.

Together with Lucien Huteau, Georges Garnier, and Gaston Peltier, Bach was a member of the Club Français team that won the 1899–1900 USFSA Paris championship. On 29 April 1900, he started in the final of the 1900 Challenge International du Nord in Tourcoing, which ended in a 2–3 loss to Le Havre AC. In the following week, on 6 May, he started in another final against Le Havre AC, this time in the 1900 USFSA Football Championship, and even though he "worked wonders after wonders", Club Français lost 0–1. Later that year, on 23 December, Bach formed a defensive partnership with Pierre Allemane in the 1900 Coupe Manier final at Joinville, keeping a clean-sheet in a 1–0 win over UA I arrondissement.

According to M.C.E. Reeves, the captain of the Norwood and Selhurst Football Club interviewed in October 1900, Bach was "one the best defenders he had watched playing".

International career

File:France football 1900.jpg

Bach (standing, third from left) with the French team at the 1900 Olympics.

Bach was listed as a defender for the USFSA team at the 1900 Olympic Games. Having just turned 17-years-old, Bach was the youngest member of the team. He was selected for both matches, which ended in a 0–4 loss to Upton Park on 20 September, and in a 6–2 win over a team representing Belgium three days later. The French team came second and Bach was thus awarded with a silver medal.

Later life

Bach enlisted in the French Army in 1904, but left in 1906, although he stayed in the reserves. When the First World War broke out in August 1914, he was called up and joined his old regiment, the 128e Régiment d’Infanterie, being killed in action in Servon-Melzicourt, Marne, on 16 September 1914, at the age of 31, and was buried in the Nécropole Nationale de Saint-Thomas-en-Argonne.

Honours

Club

Club Français

• USFSA Paris Championship:
  • Champions (1): 1899–1900
• USFSA Football Championship:
  • Runner-up (1): 1900
• Coupe Manier:
  • Champions (2): 1899 and 1900
• Challenge International du Nord:
  • Runner-up (1): 1900

International

France MNT

• Summer Olympics:
  • Silver medal (1): 1900

See also

• List of Olympians killed in World War I