Gabriel Hanot

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Gabriel Hanot (6 November 1889 Arras – 10 August 1968) was a French football player and journalist (the editor of L'Équipe).

Educated in Berlin, Hanot spoke fluent German and English and travelled widely. As a player, Hanot was capped eleven times for France as a defender before World War I, and after his military service was capped again as team captain. After World War II, Hanot served as both coach of France and a journalist for L'Équipe and France Football. The dual roles created a celebrated complication: after his France side was humiliated in a loss to Spain in 1949, Hanot, the journalist, wrote a withering criticism of his players' performance, and followed this the next day by submitting an unsigned editorial calling for the resignation of Hanot the coach. A day later Hanot, the coach, resigned. Hanot never tried to combine both roles again.

Although an excellent player, Hanot is today primarily remembered for a series of innovations that helped created modern European Football as it is known and played today. Hanot was a leading figure in professionalising the game (introduced in France in 1932). Hanot was solely responsible for the creation of the Ballon d’Or award, the most prestigious individual award in European Club Football.

Hanot’s most famous accomplishment though was conceiving the idea of a European-wide club competition, the European Cup, which for the last decade has been known as the Champions League.