Gérard Farison, Iconic Left-Back of Saint-Etienne's Golden Era, Dies at 77

Gérard Farison, the iconic left-back of AS Saint-Etienne during the 1970s, died on September 8, 2021, at the age of 77. The Saint-Etienne club paid tribute to him on social media, hailing “a child of the Green family” who had written “some of the finest pages” of its history, from the Coupe Gambardella in 1963 to the 1976 European Cup final.

Born in Terrenoire, a district of Saint-Etienne, Farison began as a mechanic before establishing himself as a left winger in the reserve team, then becoming a cornerstone of the squad built by Robert Herbin, appointed manager in 1972. Under his leadership, ASSE accumulated titles — five French championships and three French Cups to Farison’s credit — and established itself as a model by developing young players recruited from across France. The arrival of goalkeeper Ivan Curkovic and defender Osvaldo Piazza completed the club’s transformation into a powerhouse.

The pinnacle of this epic remains the 1976 European Cup final. After eliminating Rangers, Dynamo Kiev, and PSV Eindhoven, Dominique Rocheteau and his teammates faced Bayern Munich’s Franz Beckenbauer in Glasgow. The Greens lost 1-0, striking the crossbar twice in a match that entered legend as the “square post final.”

Farison, however, did not set foot on Hampden Park that evening. Injured in a Division 1 match against Nîmes, played just days before the final, he watched the defeat from the stands. That same spring, Michel Hidalgo called him up for the first and only time to the French national team, at age 32, alongside his Saint-Etienne teammates Christian Synaeghel, Jean-Michel Larqué, and Patrick Revelli, for a friendly match against Poland (2-0) in Lens.

After his playing career, Gérard Farison became a sports educator at the Fréjus town hall.