Joël Bats
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Born
1957 (69 years old)
Mont-de-Marsan, FrancePosition
Goalkeeper
Status
Ethnicity
White
Team Number
Height
180 cm
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Wage Year
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Sport
SoccerTeam
_Retired Soccer
2nd Team
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Description
Joël Bats (born 4 January 1957) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He spent his entire senior club career in his native France, appearing in a total of 553 competitive club matches and 504 Division 1 matches for Sochaux, Auxerre and Paris Saint-Germain from 1976 to 1992. He made 50 appearances, 35 competitive matches and 15 friendly matches, for the France national team.
On 7 September 1983, Bats made his debut for the senior France team in a 3–1 friendly away loss to Denmark.
Bats was selected to represent France for the 1984 European Championship finals, which France hosted and won. He played every minute of France's five matches at that tournament. It was in the semi-finals that Bats truly shone, making a pair of superb saves in the 3–2 extra-time win over Portugal before France beat Spain 2–0 in the final to lift the Henri Delaunay Trophy and win their first major international title. By the end of that tournament, Bats was recognized as a safe, authoritative presence in goal. He would remain as the first-choice goalkeeper for France until his international retirement in 1989.
Bats played all 8 of the 1986 World Cup qualifying matches and France finished at the top of its UEFA qualifying group. During the 1986 FIFA World Cup finals, he played every minute of France's three group stage matches, round of 16, quarter-final and semi-final matches. In that tournament, he famously saved a penalty from Zico in the second half of normal time and another penalty from Sócrates in the penalty shoot-out during the quarter-final against Brazil. However, he uncharacteristically let a free-kick from Andreas Brehme slip through his hands in the semi-final against West Germany, which France lost 2–0.
Bats played seven out of the eight 1988 European Championship qualifying matches and all eight of the 1990 World Cup qualifying matches. France did not qualify for the finals of both of those tournaments. Bats became the first goalkeeper to make his 50th appearance for the senior France team when he was in the starting lineup of the 2–0 1990 World Cup qualifying home win over Cyprus on 18 November 1989; he played every minute of that match and it was also his final appearance for France.
Bats was diagnosed with testicular cancer in the summer of 1982, but quickly made a full recovery after surgery. As therapy during his convalescence, he took up writing poetry, and had two volumes of it published.
In 1986, Bats put his poetry to music, releasing an album named Gardien de tes Nuits (Keeper of your Nights). Later in the same year, he released three singles - a children's song (converted from a poem) named L'Escargot (The Snail), a plaintive ballad named Soli Solitude and Même si je m’envole (Even if I am flying).
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Former Senior Teams
 Sochaux | 1974-1980 | Permanent | - | - | |
 Auxerre | 1980-1985 | Permanent | - | - | |
 France | 1983-1989 | Permanent | - | - | |
 Paris SG | 1985-1992 | Permanent | - | - |
Former Club Staff
| Paris SG | 1992-1994 | Coach | - | - | |
| Paris SG | 1994-1998 | Assistant Manager | - | - | |
 Chateauroux | 1998-1999 | Manager | - | - | |
 Lyon | 1999-2017 | Coach | - | - | |
 CF Montréal | 2018 | Coach | - | - | |
| CF Montréal | 2019 | Assistant Manager | - | - |
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