Victor Sergent

Early life and education

Victor Léon Bentall-Sergent was born in Saint-Raphaël, Var on 9 August 1886, as the son of Joseph Léon Sergent (1861–1931), an architect who designed and oversaw the construction of a villa in Côte d'Azur at the request of the Bentall family, which had chosen that region as a holiday destination, a common choice among the wealthy English families of that time. He joined the ranks of the Racing Club de France in 1906, while at the same time his brothers were in the Stade Raphaëlois team, which proves that the whole family was repatriated from England at the same time. In the former, he started in the back alongside Allemane, who at the time was the captain of the French national team.

After completing his military service, Sergent remained on the Côte d'Azur with his family, so he took out a license at Stade Raphaëlois to join his two brothers, Raoul (nicknamed Dick) and Noël, as well as their half-brother Wallace. In addition to three Sergent brothers, who all trained in English colleges, Stade Raphaëlois had a further 4 English players, who inevitably helped turn this newly founded club into the best one in the whole of the South-East, thus qualifying for the 1912 USFSA Football Championship, where they knocked out the defending champions Stade Helvétique de Marseille in the round of 16. which saved him from a humiliating 17–1 loss to Denmark.

Eight months after captaining Stade Raphaëlois to become French champions, Sergent was called up for his fifth and last international cap on 16 February 1913, and in order to honor it, he had to travel by train sixteen hours to join his teammates in Paris, and then to Brussels for a friendly match against Belgium, in which Sergent had a large share of responsibility in his side's 3–0 loss.

During the War, Sergent was sent to Basra in Iraq, where the English forces clashed with the Turks, going up to the Caspian Sea, which means that he never fought on French soil. He only returned to France after 1920, to join his family in Arlay, where his father had bought a farm that he had named Château de Proby. He was then buried in Arlay, and his brother Dick soon joined him.

Honours Racing Club de France USFSA Football Championship: 1907; runner-up 1908 Dewar Cup: 1906, 1907

Stade Raphaëlois USFSA Football Championship: 1912