Félix Vial

Vial played for CA Vitry during the 1911–12 season.^[1] The match reports referred to him as "F. Vial", to distinguish him from his brother Georges,^[4] which initially caused some confusion with Henri Vialmonteil, who at the time was called "Vial" in short.^[5] On 17 October 1911, after only one championship match, the 17-year-old Vial was called up to the French national team for a friendly match against Luxembourg, being selected by the CFI as a last-minute replacement to Jules Verbrugge, who did not want to travel to Luxembourg, following a good performance in a trial match.^[4]

Vial thus earned his first and last international cap against Luxembourg on 29 October 1911,^[2][3][4] and in doing so at the age of 17 years and 75 days, he became the youngest player in the history of the French national team, and even though a full century has passed since his debut, he still is the holder of this record, with the one who came the closest being Eduardo Camavinga in 2020, at the age of 17 years and 9 months.^[4] He played this match as a winger alongside his club teammate Viallemonteil, and despite the 4–1 victory, the French newspaper L'Auto credited him with a poor performance, stating that "Vial was pitiful".^[6] Two days later, he took part in a match for his club against Red Star FC where he performances poorly again, thus failing to confirm "the choice of the CFI selection committee, showing himself to be much inferior to his colleagues".^[4][7]

Following the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914, Vial became a second-class private of the 161st regiment, being "killed by the enemy" during the First Battle of Champagne on 25 January 1915, at the age of 20, near Vienne-le-Château in Argonne (Marne).^[3][4] However, the weekly newspaper Sporting only reported his death a year later, in March 1916, stating that "the international F. Vial, of CA Vitry, died on the field of honor".^[4]