Othniel Dossevi (born 13 January 1947) is a Togolese former 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 winger and

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Career

Dossevi started playing football in France for

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

in 1963. He was the first African to play for

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 ...

, and also scored the first PSG goal ever scored at the

Parc des Princes Parc des Princes () is an all-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Paris, France, in the south-west of the French capital, inside the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th arrondissement, near the Stade Jean-Bouin ...

, in a match against

Red Star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. I ...

on 10 November 1973. Dossevi played for PSG for three seasons, and later played for

Paris FC Paris Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris FC or simply PFC, is a French professional football club based in Paris, that competes in the Ligue 2, the second tier of French football. Paris FC play their home matches at the Stade Ch ...

between 1975 and 1977. From 1977 to 1978, he was a player at Senegalese club

Jeanne d'Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...

, but from 1978 to 1980, he was executive director at the club. In 1980, Dossevi returned to France to play amateur football with Pithiviers and Avion before retiring in 1982. Dossevi never played for the Togo national team due to his opposition to Togolese dictator

Gnassingbé Eyadéma Gnassingbé Eyadéma (; born Étienne Gnassingbé, 26 December 1935 – 5 February 2005) was the president of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005, after which he was immediately succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé. Eyadéma participated i ...

Personal life

Dossevi was born in

Lomé Lomé is the capital and largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437

, Togo, He moved to

, France in 1963, and later became a naturalized French citizen. After retiring from football, he worked as a French, Greek, Latin, and literature teacher at the in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

. Dossevi's brother Pierre-Antoine is a retired footballer and his nephews

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

and

Mathieu Mathieu is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname * André Mathieu (1929–1968), Canadian pianist and composer * Anselme Mathieu (1828–1895), French Provençal poet * Claude-Louis Mathieu (1783–187 ...

, are also footballers. Othniel's children, Damiel and Narayane, are also athletes. On 21 July 2020, before the kick-off of a

friendly match 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 ...

between PSG and

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

at the Parc des Princes, Dossevi was handed a

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Paris Saint-Germain home shirt with his name on it, and took part in PSG TV's pre-match build-up. He also gave the ceremonial kick-off of the match. The club had organized this for the occasion of the 50 years of PSG, and Dossevi was honoured for being the first African player and the first goal-scorer of the club at the Parc des Princes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dossevi, Othniel 1947 births Living people Togolese footballers French sportspeople of Togolese descent Dossevi family Association football forwards Association football wingers Sportspeople from Lomé Tours FC players FCUS Ambert players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players Paris FC players ASC Jeanne d'Arc players French Division 3 (1971–1993) players Ligue 2 players French football chairmen and investors Togolese football chairmen and investors Togolese expatriate footballers French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Senegal Togolese expatriate sportspeople in Senegal French expatriate sportspeople in Senegal Togolese emigrants to France Naturalized citizens of France