In 1958, an inexperienced French striker set a record for the most goals in a World Cup – and he wasn't even wearing his own boots

Records are made to be broken, especially that deliciously snappable Milli Vanilli vinyl, but with some you might as well save your energy. There is surely no storm perfect enough for Just Fontaine's record of 13 goals in a World Cup, set with France in 1958, to be beaten. In only one of the last nine tournaments has a player scored even half as many, when Ronaldo managed eight in 2002.

Fontaine was a born finisher, smooth and strikingly two-footed. There are similarities with the greatest goalscorer of them all, Gerd Müller: both were squat men with formidable strength, particularly in their tree-trunk thighs, and both had a supernatural awareness and serenity in their patch of land, the 18-yard box.

Like a few of France's greatest players, Fontaine wasn't born in France. He was born of a Spanish mother in Marrakech, then part of French Morocco, and started his club career with USM Casablanca. Fontaine later moved to Nice and then Reims, as a replacement for the Madrid-bound genius Raymond Kopa. It was with Kopa, one of the great No10s, that he would have such an impact in Sweden in 1958. Fontaine went into the tournament at his peak: he was 24 years old, relatively fresh because of an unplanned winter break for a knee operation, and had just hit 34 goals in 26 league games to help Reims to the double.

Yet his part in the tournament was not set in stone. Fontaine had played only five times in as many years for France before the tournament; after scoring a hat-trick on his international debut, in a World Cup qualifier, he was not picked again for three years. (This is nowhere near as daft as it sounds: Fontaine was one of 11 debutants in a dead rubber 8-0 win against Luxembourg, who were such weak opponents that he would probably have needed to score all eight to catch the eye.)

He continued to put goals on the board for Reims, and was eventually recalled, although when France arrived in Sweden for the World Cup, he had only scored one international goal in 53 months. The France national selector Paul Nicolas privately told both Fontaine and René Bliard that they would be the man to play ahead of Kopa and the excellent Roger Piantoni. Fate sorted out a potentially tricky situation: Bliard went home after he was injured in a warm-up match.

Fontaine feasted on a steady stream of gorgeous passes from Kopa – man had not discovered the sweeper in those days – and their partnership, though short-lived at international level, was legendary. Fontaine scored in all six matches, starting with a hat-trick in an unexpected 7-3 demolition of a decent Paraguay side who led 3-2 at one stage. Two more followed in a 3-2 defeat to Yugoslavia before he scored one and made one (for Kopa, a rare example of the fluffer being fluffed) in the 2-1 win over Scotland that put France into the quarter-finals.

There they met a tired Northern Ireland, who were dismissed 4-0. Fontaine scored two, the second a supreme goalscorer's goal. France's performance was so majestic that the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet said: "You have to go back a very long way in history to find any trace of a team that has played as elegantly in Sweden as the French."

In the semi-finals they met the favourites Brazil, who had Pelé, Garrincha, Nílton Santos, Didi, Vavá, Mario Zagallo and the rest. Vavá scored in the second minute, but seven minutes later Fontaine equalised classily after a beautiful buildup. "One has never seen a finer goal," wrote the man from the Guardian. It remained 1-1 until the 36th minute, when Vavá broke the leg of the France captain, Robert Jonquet. There were no substitutes in those days, so Jonquet spent the rest of the game wincing on the wing, and Brazil trounced the 10 men 5-2.

It meant that, to beat Sandor Kocsis's record of 11 goals in a World Cup, set with Hungary in 1954, Fontaine needed to score three in the third-place play-off against West Germany. He hit four in a 6-3 win. The game was competitive only in name – "Fontaine only had to stay on his feet to score goals," wrote Cris Freddi is his definitive history of the World Cup – but even then, Fontaine had scored nine in the first five games, in a tournament where no other player hit more than six. "These were easy pickings," adds Freddi, "but his credentials as a goalscorer stand up to any scrutiny."

His overall total could have been more than 13. He hit the bar twice against Scotland and let Kopa take a penalty against West Germany, even though at that stage he only had 10 goals for the tournament.

Fontaine's scoring feats are even more improbable in view of the fact that he was not even wearing his own boots: he had to borrow a pair from a team-mate (not, as some of you familiar with tales of magic boots might suspect, Jimmy "Dead Shot" Keen, but Stéphane Bruey).

Nor did he receive a Golden Boot at the end of the tournament: in those days there was no formal presentation, and he had to make do with an air rifle from a local newspaper. Forty years later he received a golden boot from Gary Lineker as part of a television programme tracing the history of the award.

Fontaine broke his leg twice in 1960 and, as a consequence, played his last international at the age of 27, finishing with the computer-game record of 30 goals in 21 appearances. His strike rate of 1.43 goals per game is the highest of anybody with 30 international goals. In 10 competitive internationals he scored 21 times.

He went on to manage France, Luchon, Paris Saint-Germain, Toulouse and Morocco, with mixed success. He also inspired an indie band who "don't really do happy!". Now, at the age of 78, he lives in Toulouse, owns two Lacoste shops and predicts results for the French pools. "I spend my days playing belote [a French card game]," he says. "Other than that I watch the African Nations Cup, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga ..."

Fontaine has regularly dismissed the idea that goals were a cheaper currency in his day. "No, it wasn't easier to score in 1958," he said, possibly 0.00000000004 seconds after watching a video of David Luiz. "The state of the ball, the length of the trip over and the amateurism of the backroom staff made everything much more complicated than today. I had somebody else's boots as well. And the last great World Cup scorer, Ronaldo, played against teams such as China and Costa Rica. Above all else, referees protect strikers much more than they did in my day. So let me repeat it: 13 goals is an enormous total. Beating my record? I don't think it can ever be done."

• With thanks to Paul Doyle and Cris Freddi