Jean-Pierre Adams (10 March 1948 – 6 September 2021) was a French professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

22 times for

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in the 1970s, and at club level, he played Division 1 football for

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of 148,5 ...

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

and

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

. From March 1982 until his death in September 2021, he was in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

as a result of mistakes made during a hospital operation.

Early life

Adams was born and raised in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

until the age of 10, when he left his native Senegal on a pilgrimage to

Montargis Montargis () is a communes of France, commune in the Loiret Departments of France, department, Centre-Val de Loire, France. Montargis is the seventh most populous commune in the Loiret, after Orléans and its suburbs. It is near a large forest, ...

in the Loiret department accompanied by his grandmother, a devout

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. When they arrived, she enrolled him at a local Catholic school, Saint-Louis de Montargis. He was adopted by a French couple shortly after his arrival in the country. During his studies, Adams worked at a local rubber manufacturer and he started playing football at several local clubs in the Loiret area.

Club career

Adams started playing with

Entente BFN Entente Bagneaux-Fontainebleau-Nemours was a football club located in the towns of Bagneaux-sur-Loing, Fontainebleau, and Nemours in France. It was founded in 1966 as a result of the merger between AS Bagneaux-Nemours and CS Fontainebleau. How ...

in 1967 as a striker, with whom he was runner-up in the

Championnat de France Amateur The Championnat National 2, commonly known as National 2 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur (CFA), is a football league competition. The league serves as the fourth tier of the French football league system behind Ligue 1, Ligue ...

twice. In 1970, he signed a contract with

, going on to remain in Division 1 for the following nine seasons, also representing

and

. In the 1971–72 campaign, Adams contributed four goals in all 38 games to help Nîmes to a best-ever second place, also winning the

Cup of the Alps Coppa delle Alpi (translated as ''Cup of the Alps'') was a friendly football tournament, first organized by the Italian national league as it started in 1960 and then they were aided by the Swiss League from 1962, for the reason that the majorit ...

. He added a career-best nine for Nice in 1973–74, for a final fifth position. After

one year ''One Year'' is the debut solo studio album by English singer-songwriter Colin Blunstone, a member of the Zombies. It was released by Epic Records in 1971. It includes "Say You Don't Mind", which peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart. Prod ...

in Division 2 with

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''Mill (grinding), mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department, in the Grand Est Regions of France, region, eastern France, close to the France–Switzerl ...

, Adams retired in 1981 at the age of 33, following a spell with amateurs

Chalon Chalon may refer to: Culture * Chalon people, a Native American tribe of California * Chalon language, an Ohlone language spoken by the Chalon people Places * Chalon, Isère, formerly Châlons, in France's Isère ''département'' * Le Chalon, in ...

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

International career

On 15 June 1972, Adams made his debut for the France national team in an unofficial

exhibition game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against an African XI selected by the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football, or CAF for short (french: link=yes, Confédération Africaine de Football, ar, link=yes, الاتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Afrīqī li-Kurat al-Qadam), is the administ ...

. His first competitive

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

came on 13 October of that year, in a 1–0 home win over the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

for the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

qualifiers. Adams' last of his 22 appearances occurred on 1 September 1976, in a friendly with

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. During his tenure with ''Les Bleus'', he formed a stopper partnership with

Marius Trésor Marius Paul Trésor (born 15 January 1950) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defender. He was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers. He is considered one of the best central defenders of all ...

which was dubbed ''La garde noire'' (black guard).

Personal life, injury and death

Adams and his wife Bernadette were married in April 1969 and had two sons, Laurent (born 1969) and Frédéric (1976). Following a ligament rupture injury, he was hospitalised for surgery on 17 March 1982 at the Édouard Herriot Hospital in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. Because many hospital staff were on strike during that time, errors were made by his

anesthetist Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology, or anaesthesia is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicine, ...

and a trainee, who later admitted to being "not up to the task"; as a result, Adams suffered a

bronchospasm Bronchospasm or a bronchial spasm is a sudden constriction of the muscles in the walls of the bronchioles. It is caused by the release (degranulation) of substances from mast cells or basophils under the influence of anaphylatoxins. It causes di ...

which starved his brain of oxygen and he slipped into a coma. In the mid-1990s, when a court of law adjudicated on the case, both the anaesthetist and trainee were given one-month suspended sentences and were fined $815. His wife continued to tend to his needs, refusing to consider

euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...

. Adams died on 6 September 2021 in

at the age of 73, after being in a coma for 39 years. The following day, he was honoured with a minute's applause prior to the World Cup qualifier between France and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in Lyon.

Honours

Entente BFN *

runner-up: 1967–68, 1968–69

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Jean-Pierre 1948 births 2021 deaths Senegalese emigrants to France Naturalized citizens of France French Roman Catholics French sportspeople of Senegalese descent Footballers from Dakar Black French sportspeople Senegalese footballers French footballers Association football defenders Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat de France Amateur (1935–1971) players Division d'Honneur players Entente Bagneaux-Fontainebleau-Nemours players Nîmes Olympique players OGC Nice players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players FC Mulhouse players FC Chalon players France international footballers Association football player-managers People with hypoxic and ischemic brain injuries People with disorders of consciousness