Mangin High School reprimands harassed the Fontaines’ letterbox more than unwelcome advertisements. Delphin reacted by shaving off his son’s hair as punishment. “It didn’t do me any favours with the girls, so I started forging my dad’s signature!” Just admitted later, laughing.

Papa wasn’t the only parent he disobeyed. When Marie Dolores ordered ‘Justo’, as she called him, to go to their local church in Marrakesh, he did so but blasted a ball around its courtyard and, to her horror, smashed a stained-glass window. The chaos continued. Just bunked school during days and snuck into cinemas without paying on evenings.

The former eventually expelled the ungovernable kid. Just viewed it as a blessing in disguise. The blessing that fast-tracked him into a football career. “I graduated on grass!” he commented.

The child genius graduated early. At 17, he bagged 23 goals in 16 games in the Moroccan top-flight. Two years later he joined Nice and hit France like a cyclone. Miraculously, not even a 30-month stint on Moroccan military service could stop him. Fontaine, indeed, was granted the unprecedented privilege of being able to commute, by train, between the Joinville Battalion and the Stade du Ray for games.

Fontaine was soon summoned by France. He switched allegiance, marked his international debut with a treble, and was duly named in their squad for the 1958 FIFA World Cup™. As it turns out, you could take the boy out of school, but you couldn’t take the disobedience out of the boy.

Les Bleus’ players were given a few strict instructions. One was to take a spare pair of boots. Twenty-one men complied. One ignored the edict. Having played just five internationals in four-and-a-half years, Fontaine didn’t expect action.

Rene Bilard and Thadee Cisowski were, however, both ruled out through injury. Albert Batteux, who doubled up as Fontaine’s Reims and France coach, told him he’d be starting ahead of the likes of Stephane Bruey and Yvon Douis.

Ecstasy instantly turned to agony. In their final training session, Fontaine’s boots split. “I was devastated,” he recalled. “I thought my chance could be gone.”

Only one reserve shared the same shoe size. Had Bruey declined to offer Fontaine his boots, he himself may have spearheaded France at the finals. Fortunately for the latter, his gracious pal passed them over.

In the borrowed boots Fontaine wreaked terror. He hit a hat-trick against Paraguay, a brace against Yugoslavia and the winner against Scotland. Another double in a thrashing of Northern Ireland set up a mouth-watering semi-final against Brazil.

It took Fontaine only nine minutes to get on the scoresheet. Later that half, however, Robert Jonquet broke his leg. Substitutions weren’t permitted in that era, so France had to play the remainer of the game at a numerical handicap. Predictably, their No17 was neutralised thereafter in a 5-2 loss to Garrincha, Pele and Co.

‘Justo’ had one last shot at the towering target Sandor Kocsis had set four years earlier. He’d chopped the 11-goal record for goals in one edition of the World Cup down to two. It seemed unlikely he’d be able to equal it – unlikelier still eclipse it – against holders West Germany in the third-place play-off.

Yet the former bad boy was back to his old tricks. This time logic got disobeyed. Four goals past Heinz Kwiatkowski fetched France bronze and himself a landmark that has never been – and may never be – outranked.

“I like to tell people that some of my goals were inspired by combining two spirits inside the same shoe,” he joked, before revealing his secret. “The big advantage I had with my record is that I’d had a knee operation in December 1957 and came back in February. That gave me a little winter break which meant that, in June, I was fresh when others weren’t.

“That said, to score 13 goals when I wasn’t taking penalties was amazing. I ran on water like Jesus. I have no idea if it’ll be beaten as I’m not a soothsayer, but I’m not against keeping it.”

Fontaine was thrilled to be invited to Brazil 2014 by FIFA. There, he was presented with the adidas Platinum Boot in recognition of his record. “I’m very emotional,” said the Frenchman. “It’s beautiful.”

“I scored eight goals in 2002,” responded Ronaldo, “and it’s something I’m really, really, proud of. “You scored 13. Thirteen! And in one fewer game! I don’t have words [to honour your achievement]. You’re a legend.”

That legend passed away in 2022, but not before giving a characteristically comical response to whether his milestone will ever be eclipsed.

“One day, some Egyptologists come across an intact mummy,” he said. “They observe it and notice that it’s moving under the bandages. They hurry to unwrap it and set it free, and when, finally, it speaks, it says, ‘Excuse me, but does Just Fontaine still have the goals record?’”