Émile Louis François Dusart (2 August 1896 – 6 January 1918) was a French footballer who played as a midfielder for RC Roubaix and the French national team in the early 1910s.

Émile Dusart
Personal information
Full name Émile Louis François Dusart
Date of birth (1896-08-02)2 August 1896
Place of birth Roubaix, France
Date of death 6 January 1918(1918-01-06) (aged 21)
Place of death Sainte-Menehould, France
Height 1.66 m (5 ft 5 in)[1]
Position Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1913–1914 RC Roubaix
International career
1914 France 1 (0)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Early life

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Émile Dusart was born on 2 August 1896 in Roubaix, as the eldest of four sons from Emile Joseph, plasterer-ceiling worker born in Belgium, but of French nationality.[1] He grew up in Roubaix, where he attended all his schooling and passed his revision board.[1]

Playing career

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Together with his brother André, he took out a license with his hometown club RC Roubaix in the early 1910s, but only became a regular in the club's first team during the 1913–14 season, aged 17, where he formed a great wing with Raymond Dubly.[1] He made up for his frail build and small height of 1.66 meters with his technique, being selected by the Northern team to play a friendly against a selection of Normandy in April 1914.[1] The following month, on 31 May 1914, the 17-year-old Dusart earned his first (and only) international cap for France in a friendly against Hungary at Budapest, which ended in a 5–1 loss.[1][2] In doing so, he became the fourth-ever RC Roubaix players to represent the French national team, after Émile Sartorius, Maurice Vandendriessche, and Dubly.[3]

Death

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When World War I broke out in July 1914, Dusart was still a few weeks shy of his 18th birthday, so he was only incorporated in April 1915,[1] into Saint-Cyr.[4] A second lieutenant of the 365th infantry regiment, he died on 6 January 1918, in an ambulance taking him to the Sainte-Menehould hospital after wounds received in combat on 2 January.[1][5][6][7] The following month, in February, one of his brothers played for the Northern France selection in a friendly against a LFA selection.[8] Despite being over 40 years old, his father also fought in World War I, but unlike his son, he survived it.[1]

Legacy

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In the following year, in June 1919, his former club Roubaix held a mass in the Saint-Martin church in honor of the Roubaix members who died at the front, including Dusart.[1][9] He was posthumously awarded the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor.[5]

Like so many other French internationals from the early 20th century, Dusart was the victim of mistakes by historians, being initially confused with a certain Emile Désiré Dusart, born in Ardennes on 3 September 1892, and who died on 13 March 1919, an error that persisted until the 21st century,[10][1][11]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Les premiers Bleus: Emile Dusart, le vingt-quatrième homme" [The first Blues: Emile Dusart, the twenty-fourth man]. www.chroniquesbleues.fr (in French). 10 November 2023. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  2. "Emile Dusart, international footballer". eu-football.info. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  3. "Roubaix et l'équipe de France de Football: une longue histoire..." [Roubaix and the French Football Team: a long history...]. www.roubaixxl.fr (in French). 28 June 2021. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  4. "Choses & autres" [Things & Others]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Sporting. 16 May 1917. p. 15. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  5. 1 2 "Emile Dusart". www.fff.fr (in French). Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  6. "DUSART Emile Louis François, 02-08-1896". www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr (in French). Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  7. "Nos Morts - Le Sous-Lieutenant Emile DUSART" [Our Dead - Second Lieutenant Emile Dusart]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Bulletin de la paroisse St-Martin de Roubaix et de ses oeuvres. 15 February 1918. p. 2. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  8. "La vie sportive - Football Association" [Sports life - Football Association]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Le Matin. 22 February 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  9. "Un service funèbre à Roubaix" [A funeral service in Roubaix]. gallica.bnf.fr (in French). L'Auto. 13 June 1919. p. 3. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  10. "Emile Dusart (Player)". www.national-football-teams.com. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  11. "Les internationaux français morts au combat à la Première Guerre mondiale" [French internationals killed in combat during the First World War]. www.chroniquesbleues.fr (in French). 11 November 2024. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
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