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Alex Villaplane's life took a radical turn in the space of just a few years. In 1930, at the first World Cup in Uruguay, he was captain of the French national side. By the end of that decade, far removed from anything to do with football, he had become a key figure in the brutal 'French Gestapo'.
Villaplane was a right-sided midfielder with good technique, tactically sharp, adept at winning the ball back and strong in the air. Born in 1905 in the French protectorate of Algeria, he made his career as a footballer in France — playing for FC Sète, Nîmes, Racing de Paris (where he spent his best years), FC Antibes, Nice and Hispano-Bastidienne, for whom he played a handful of matches when he wasn't in prison. His 25-cap international career began with the Bleus against Belgium in a friendly at the Stade Pershing in eastern Paris in 1926. Two years later, Scotsman Peter Farmer selected him for the Amsterdam Olympics, and in 1930 he travelled as captain to the World Cup in Uruguay. In Amsterdam they were beaten in the first round by Italy; in Uruguay the French fell in the group stage after beating Mexico on their debut and losing narrowly to both Argentina and Chile in Montevideo.
Throughout his footballing career he was already embroiled in problems involving gambling, match-fixing and theft. He was arrested in connection with a horse-racing betting scandal in Paris, which cost him six months in prison in 1935. He was also the central figure in the first ever match-fixing scandal in French football history. Olympique Antibes were fighting for the Group B title in the Division Nationale, and on the final matchday beat SC Fivois Lille 5–0 — a result subsequently revealed to have been agreed in advance. In the Antibes side he was reunited with two old friends, goalkeeper Laurent Henric and midfielder Pierrot Cazal, but the investigations identified him as one of the ringleaders. His reputation in France collapsed, and he was forced to leave and sign for Nice. The Côte d'Azur club was relegated and stripped of the group lead in favour of AS Cannes, who went on to contest the French Championship against Olympique Lillois.
In 1939, the outbreak of the Second World War caught him in prison — bankrupt and rotating in and out of custody for corruption and petty theft. A year later, the German occupation of Paris gave him free rein to continue his criminal activities. The notorious criminal Henri Lafont petitioned the Nazi hierarchy for the release of several criminals, Villaplane among them.
From that moment on he became part of the French Gestapo and a group known as the BNA (Brigade of North Africa), where he wore the SS second lieutenant's uniform with pride and arrogance, going by the name SS Mohammed. The organisation's primary aim was to locate and kill members of the French Resistance and to extort and torture Jewish people, Roma and partisans. Through this he made substantial sums of money and recovered the economic status he had craved.
Villaplane during his time as a footballer at Nice
His effectiveness earned him a promotion and he became one of the five leaders of the BNA. Among his most barbaric acts was the "Massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane", in which he deceived 52 SS prisoners into a money exchange before they were subsequently executed, and the abduction and killing of ten young men in Aquitaine. The boys, aged between 17 and 27, were subjected to every form of torture before Villaplane was the first to shoot them at point-blank range. Witnesses reported that he appeared to enjoy it, smiling as he did so.
The French Resistance gradually dismantled the criminal organisation, but the former French captain still found time to swindle numerous Jewish families. His scheme involved winning their trust, presenting himself as a saviour for around 400,000 francs per person, and offering an exchange of money or jewellery for safe passage to Portugal — a neutral country. In reality, the Jews never left Paris and were transported through various ruses to Gestapo headquarters in the capital.
The turning tide of the war and the liberation of Paris in 1944 brought Villaplane's plans to ruin. The BNA was dissolved that summer and many collaborators fled to Germany. The former footballer stayed and was swiftly arrested by the French authorities. In his defence he claimed that what was said about him was untrue, and that his main activity during the war had been helping Jews escape Paris. Nobody believed him.
At the end of 1944, despite his recent German naturalisation, he was tried by the Seine Court of Justice, which charged him with being a Nazi collaborator and responsible for at least ten murders. The court sentenced him to death, and the sentence was carried out at 10am at the Montrouge barracks on 26th December, where he was shot at the age of 39 alongside his associate Henri Lafont and former SS lieutenant Pierre Bony.
The French squad with Villaplane as captain at the Uruguay 1930 World Cup
