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AFP
Dakar
Senegal is in mourning following the death of one of its foremost sporting icons from coronavirus, as the government struggles to impose health restrictions in the West African state.
Former Olympique de Marseille president Pape Diouf died late on Tuesday aged 68 in the capital Dakar after contracting COVID-19.
The first ever black president of a top European football club, a one-time journalist, was idolised in his native Senegal. Diouf was the first to die from coronavirus in the country.
His death was a wake-up call.
Adama Ndione, vice president of an Olympique de Marseille fan club in Senegal, said he had “spilled a lot of tears” over his hero’s death.
“He was a Senegalese, a perfect example of success in everything he did, an example for us,” Ndione said.
Tributes have poured in for Diouf from Senegalese dignitaries, with President Macky Sall calling him an “eminence grise of football” and the singer Youssou Ndour saying he was a “formidable and multi-dimensional man”.
Diouf’s death has put a human face on what has tended to be a distant concern in Senegal.
The former French colony has recorded 190 coronavirus infections to date, and as in other poor African states, there are fears that the government is ill-equipped for a large outbreak.
Last week, Sall announced a state of emergency in order to curb coronavirus, imposing a dusk-to-dawn curfew. He has also banned large gatherings, mosque prayers and shut schools.
But the government has struggled to enforce some of these measures, with police sometimes having to disperse crowds of worshippers.
“Pape’s death raises awareness through its strong resonance,” psychologist Serigne Mor Mbaye was quoted as saying in local media.
“We saw him as omnipotent, at an inaccessible level,” he added.
Adama Ndione, of the Marseille fan club, said people had not wanted to believe in the threat posed by coronavirus, but would now start to fear it.
“He was a man of conviction, a man of wit and passion for the game and all those involved in it,” said French World Cup-winning national coach Didier Deschamps, who was recruited as Marseille coach by Diouf in 2009. “His sudden and brutal passing saddens me deeply.”
Diouf was hospitalised in Senegal after contracting the virus there. He had been due to leave for Nice earlier on Tuesday to be treated in France, but a sharp deterioration in his health -- which saw him placed on a respirator -- prevented him from boarding the plane.
Moving to Marseille from Senegal aged 18, he was set to follow in the footsteps of his father, a World War II veteran, by embarking on a career in the military. But he soon switched paths.
After dropping out of university he worked at the La Marseillaise newspaper before changing careers to become a football agent, handling some of Africa’s top talent including Didier Drogba, who enthralled Marseille’s Stade Velodrome in 2003-04.
He was brought on to the club’s payroll as general manager in 2004 and a year later rose to become president, “a difficult post, where there were very few men from diverse backgrounds,” said Jacques-Henri Eyraud, the club’s current president.
Painful
“But he fought tooth and nail, and won the hearts of thousands of supporters.”
Diouf was acutely aware of the lack of diversity in the boardrooms of European clubs, telling an interviewer in 2008 that it was painful to him that he was the only black president of a European club.
“I am the only black president of a European club. It’s a painful observation” but one that “fits the image of a European society, especially French society, that excludes ethnic minorities,” he said.
Nevertheless fans at the Velodrome embraced the ever popular figure who was eventually forced out by internal differences in the boardroom in 2009.
“Pape will remain in the hearts of the Marseillais forever, as one of the great architects in the club’s history,” Marseille said in a statement.
In Ligue 1, his most bitter rival was always Lyon chief Jean-Michel Aulas. The pair traded barbs over the years but the bitter jibes veiled his respect for a “great president” said Aulas.
“I had profound respect for him,” Aulas said. “He was a great president and very successful one.”
“He knew football, the media, the agents and the players,” said Louis Acaries, adviser to Marseille’s then owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus.
“But above all he was a man. And a good man.”
Dakar
Senegal is in mourning following the death of one of its foremost sporting icons from coronavirus, as the government struggles to impose health restrictions in the West African state.
Former Olympique de Marseille president Pape Diouf died late on Tuesday aged 68 in the capital Dakar after contracting COVID-19.
The first ever black president of a top European football club, a one-time journalist, was idolised in his native Senegal. Diouf was the first to die from coronavirus in the country.
His death was a wake-up call.
Adama Ndione, vice president of an Olympique de Marseille fan club in Senegal, said he had “spilled a lot of tears” over his hero’s death.
“He was a Senegalese, a perfect example of success in everything he did, an example for us,” Ndione said.
Tributes have poured in for Diouf from Senegalese dignitaries, with President Macky Sall calling him an “eminence grise of football” and the singer Youssou Ndour saying he was a “formidable and multi-dimensional man”.
Diouf’s death has put a human face on what has tended to be a distant concern in Senegal.
The former French colony has recorded 190 coronavirus infections to date, and as in other poor African states, there are fears that the government is ill-equipped for a large outbreak.
Last week, Sall announced a state of emergency in order to curb coronavirus, imposing a dusk-to-dawn curfew. He has also banned large gatherings, mosque prayers and shut schools.
But the government has struggled to enforce some of these measures, with police sometimes having to disperse crowds of worshippers.
“Pape’s death raises awareness through its strong resonance,” psychologist Serigne Mor Mbaye was quoted as saying in local media.
“We saw him as omnipotent, at an inaccessible level,” he added.
Adama Ndione, of the Marseille fan club, said people had not wanted to believe in the threat posed by coronavirus, but would now start to fear it.
“He was a man of conviction, a man of wit and passion for the game and all those involved in it,” said French World Cup-winning national coach Didier Deschamps, who was recruited as Marseille coach by Diouf in 2009. “His sudden and brutal passing saddens me deeply.”
Diouf was hospitalised in Senegal after contracting the virus there. He had been due to leave for Nice earlier on Tuesday to be treated in France, but a sharp deterioration in his health -- which saw him placed on a respirator -- prevented him from boarding the plane.
Moving to Marseille from Senegal aged 18, he was set to follow in the footsteps of his father, a World War II veteran, by embarking on a career in the military. But he soon switched paths.
After dropping out of university he worked at the La Marseillaise newspaper before changing careers to become a football agent, handling some of Africa’s top talent including Didier Drogba, who enthralled Marseille’s Stade Velodrome in 2003-04.
He was brought on to the club’s payroll as general manager in 2004 and a year later rose to become president, “a difficult post, where there were very few men from diverse backgrounds,” said Jacques-Henri Eyraud, the club’s current president.
Painful
“But he fought tooth and nail, and won the hearts of thousands of supporters.”
Diouf was acutely aware of the lack of diversity in the boardrooms of European clubs, telling an interviewer in 2008 that it was painful to him that he was the only black president of a European club.
“I am the only black president of a European club. It’s a painful observation” but one that “fits the image of a European society, especially French society, that excludes ethnic minorities,” he said.
Nevertheless fans at the Velodrome embraced the ever popular figure who was eventually forced out by internal differences in the boardroom in 2009.
“Pape will remain in the hearts of the Marseillais forever, as one of the great architects in the club’s history,” Marseille said in a statement.
In Ligue 1, his most bitter rival was always Lyon chief Jean-Michel Aulas. The pair traded barbs over the years but the bitter jibes veiled his respect for a “great president” said Aulas.
“I had profound respect for him,” Aulas said. “He was a great president and very successful one.”
“He knew football, the media, the agents and the players,” said Louis Acaries, adviser to Marseille’s then owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus.
“But above all he was a man. And a good man.”
