Pape Diouf: Marseille's Fearless Leader who Changed French Football Forever

Pape Diouf. (Getty Images)
Pape Diouf. (Getty Images)
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Pape Diouf: Marseille's Fearless Leader who Changed French Football Forever

Pape Diouf. (Getty Images)
Pape Diouf. (Getty Images)

It is difficult to write about the importance of one man at the time of untold tragedy. Paying particular attention to one person who has died after contracting coronavirus may seem arbitrary, almost cruel, or even myopic while tens of thousands are dying. Yet, the life of Pape Diouf is one that deserves recognition.

Born in Chad to Senegalese parents, Diouf moved to Marseille at the age of 18, ostensibly to become a soldier, but he was eager to forge his own path and make the most of the opportunities that could be found in France. To his parents’ chagrin, he started working in a post office, abandoning his studies for a position that was more immediately lucrative. His journey helped form his tough and even blunt approach. When he became a football agent, it made him not only an influential figure but one who was also infinitely relatable.

Diouf worked for years as a journalist in the south of France, covering Marseille for La Marseillaise, first as a freelancer and then as the paper’s lead reporter, before joining the ill-fated national daily Le Sport. After Le Sport went bankrupt, Diouf used his connections with Marseille players to begin work as an agent. He would go on to become a revolutionary figure in the world of sports, a true groundbreaker at a time when agents were not nearly as powerful as they are now.

Basile Boli and Joseph-Antoine Bell, both of whom played for Marseille at the time, were his first clients. The club were on the cusp of both their greatest success, winning the Champions League in 1993, and their greatest ignominy, when they were stripped of their league title that season, having bribed Valenciennes FC to throw a league match in the buildup to the final. Boli had been the hero of that European final win against Milan and his own story, having come from the Ivory Coast at a young age to find success in France, made Diouf seem like a father figure to the defender. “I can’t even speak,” said Boli when he heard that Diouf had died. “He’s not a friend – he was a big brother to me. All my children, my father and my mother knew him, loved him.”

With the success of his clients at Marseille – the title that was taken from them in 1993 would have been their third in a row – Diouf’s star quickly rose. Grégory Coupet, Marcel Desailly and Bernard Lama soon appointed him as their agent. Diouf’s intelligence and charisma helped him grow in standing among France’s power brokers. He understood that the game was becoming global and, with players such as Didier Drogba, Laurent Robert and Desailly impressing abroad, his reach extended, especially to England, where he and Arsène Wenger did much to bring French talent to a wider audience.

The Marseille owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus hired Diouf to work as the club’s sporting director in 2004, as much for his connections as his recruiting ability. When manager José Anigo resigned later that year, Diouf was appointed president, replacing the embattled Christophe Bouchet. With his own client, Drogba, having been sold to Chelsea in the summer of 2004, Marseille were always going to struggle for goals, but it was a particularly difficult time for the club. Lyon’s hegemony made Marseille’s underperformance especially galling. Despite their struggles, Diouf took things in his stride, even as the club cycled through three managers that season.

The next season, 2005-06, offered hope. The results were not much better – the club finished fifth for a second campaign running – but the arrivals of Franck Ribéry and Mamadou Niang, as well as the emergence of Samir Nasri (another of Diouf’s clients) augured well for the future. Diouf’s other signings during his tenure included Steve Mandanda and Hilton, showing his lasting influence on the game in France even today. But there were also missteps in the form of flair players such as Karim Ziani and Bakari Koné.

He also made headlines that season with the “Match of the Minots” at the Parc des Princes. Marseille and PSG have one of France’s most fiercely contested rivalries and on the occasion, Diouf, who was at odds with France’s governing body, the LFP, over security at the match and the number of places away fans would be afforded, sent a reserve side, who famously earned a scoreless draw. He did not endear himself to the powers that be in France in that episode, but he became a near-immediate legend at Marseille.

However, pressure continued to mount as the seasons passed without a trophy and the club chose to cut ties with Diouf in the summer of 2009, even though he had helped steer them to second place – just three points short of the title – that season. Despite his own lack of success, there is no denying that Diouf put the foundations in place for Marseille’s title the following year and their stirring run to the Champions League quarter-finals in 2012. He was later indicted (and acquitted) for improper dealings regarding player transfers, but there is no doubting the long shadow he cast over France’s most popular club.

Mathieu Valbuena, who won the league with Marseille in 2010, was impressed by Diouf’s immense aura. “He had an incredible presence,” said Valbuena. “He had broad shoulders. For me, he is the best president in Marseille’s recent history. When he left in 2009, he left the club in a very good state. He was close to the players, the employees. He knew how to get his messages across, to be sharp.”

After leaving Marseille, Diouf worked at a journalism college in Marseille and stood for an election in the city as well. His massive personality and outspoken approach did him no favors in either of these endeavors as he continued to show the world that, even away from football, he could be as brazen as the young man who had dared to disobey his parents’ wishes for him to be a soldier.

Again, his death is one of many in the world at the moment, but for a man for whom race, class, or social standing were no obstacle, and for whom no opponent seemed too big, it is only fitting that we note the passing of Pape Diouf by honoring him for what he was: a principled, fearless and forthright individual whose ambitions and influence on the game knew no limit.

The Guardian Sport



‘Rested’ Pacquiao Relishing Boxing Comeback at 46 

Manny Pacquiao speaks prior to his WBC welterweight fight versus Mario Barrios at The NOVO at LA Live on June 3, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
Manny Pacquiao speaks prior to his WBC welterweight fight versus Mario Barrios at The NOVO at LA Live on June 3, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
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‘Rested’ Pacquiao Relishing Boxing Comeback at 46 

Manny Pacquiao speaks prior to his WBC welterweight fight versus Mario Barrios at The NOVO at LA Live on June 3, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
Manny Pacquiao speaks prior to his WBC welterweight fight versus Mario Barrios at The NOVO at LA Live on June 3, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images/AFP)

Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday shrugged off concerns about his decision to return to boxing at the age of 46 as he prepares for next month's world welterweight title comeback against Mario Barrios.

The charismatic Filipino boxing icon stunned the sports world last month after announcing he would take on World Boxing Council (WBC) champion Barrios on July 19 in Las Vegas, four years after his last fight ended in a disappointing defeat.

Pacquiao, who won 12 world titles in eight different weight classes during a glittering professional career that began in 1995, told reporters on Tuesday that the glamour of championship boxing had prompted his return.

"I'm returning because I miss my boxing," Pacquiao said at a press conference in Los Angeles. "Especially these situations -- being interviewed, press conference, training camp, everything like that.

"I missed that. But it has been good for me -- I've rested my body for four years. And now I come back."

Pacquiao said that he had been left devastated following his decision to retire in the wake of his loss to Yordenis Ugas in 2021.

"I always thought, even when I hung up my gloves, 'I can still fight, I can still feel my body, I can still work hard,'" Pacquiao said.

"That moment when I announced hanging up my gloves four years ago -- I was so sad. I was crying, I cannot stop the tears coming out my eyes."

Pacquiao, though, revealed that working out at his home in the Philippines persuaded him he still had the fitness and strength to fight.

"I realized when I'm playing basketball, training at the gym my house -- I have complete sport facilities in my house -- that I still have that passion. I still have that speed and power," he said.

- 'Low-risk' comeback -

Some in boxing have expressed concerns about whether Pacquiao's comeback against Barrios, who is 16 years his junior, represents a risk to the Filipino's safety.

Addressing those concerns, Pacquiao noted that his family and loved ones were firmly behind his comeback.

"I'm thankful for them for their concern," Pacquiao told AFP. "But the people who really concern me, is my family. My family saw how I move, saw how I train, saw my body condition. They support me because they can see the old Pacquiao style."

Pacquiao, who has reunited with veteran trainer Freddie Roach for next month's fight, is able to challenge immediately for a title due to a WBC rule that allows former champions to request a title fight when coming out of retirement.

WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman told AFP on Tuesday that Pacquiao had been cleared to return to the ring by the Nevada Athletic Commission after undergoing medical exams, describing the fighter's comeback as "low risk".

"Manny Pacquiao is at no higher risk than any fighter going into the ring," Sulaiman said. "Manny has rested his body for four years. He's not a drinker. He's not a drug user. He's a family man that has taken care of himself. So of the different aspects of dangers, he's at the lowest risk."

Pacquiao's opponent, Barrios, said he would set aside the Filipino's status as one of the most beloved fighters of his era.

"There's nothing but good things to say about him outside the ring," Barrios said of Pacquiao. "He's a hard guy to dislike. But at the end of the day, you know it's kill or be killed.

"And I know if at any point he has me hurt, you know he's going to get me out of there. So I just have to go in there and make sure that my hand is raised at the end of the fight."