Jean-Pierre Adams

Jean-Pierre Adams (born 10 March 1948) is a French former professional footballer who played as a centre back.

Jean-Pierre Adams
Personal information
Date of birth (1948-03-10) 10 March 1948[1]
Place of birth Dakar, French West Africa
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[2]
Position(s) Centre back
Youth career
US Cepoy
CD Bellegarde
USM Montargis
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1967–1970 Fontainebleau
1970–1973 Nîmes 84 (8)
1973–1977 Nice 126 (15)
1977–1979 Paris Saint-Germain 41 (1)
1979–1980 Mulhouse 11 (1)
1980–1981 Chalon 23 (1)
Total 285 (26)
National team
1972–1976 France 22 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Since March 1982, he has been in a coma following an operation.[3][4]

Early life

Adams was born and raised in Dakar until the age of 10, when he left his native Senegal on a pilgrimage to Montargis in the Loiret department alongside his grandmother, who was a devout Catholic. When they arrived, she enlisted him at a local Catholic school, Saint-Louis de Montargis.[5] He was adopted by a French couple shortly after his arrival in the country.[6]

During his studies, Adams worked at a local rubber manufacturer and he started playing football at several local clubs in the Loiret area.[7][8]

Club career

Adams started playing with RC Fontainebleau in 1967 as a striker, with whom he won the Championnat de France amateur twice. In 1970, he signed a contract with Nîmes Olympique, going on to remain in Division 1 for the following nine seasons, also representing OGC Nice and Paris Saint-Germain FC.[7]

In the 1971–72 campaign, Adams contributed with four goals in all 38 games to help Nîmes to a best-ever second place,[9] also winning the Cup of the Alps.[10] He added a career-best nine for Nice in 1973–74, for a final fifth position.[9]

After one year in Division 2 with FC Mulhouse, Adams retired in 1981 at the age of 33, following a spell with amateurs FC Chalon.[7]

International career

On 15 June 1972, Adams made his debut for the French national team in an unofficial exhibition game against an African XI selected by the Confederation of African Football.[7] His first competitive cap came on 13 October of that year, in a 1–0 home win against the Soviet Union for the 1974 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.[11]

Adams' last appearance occurred on 1 September 1976, in a friendly with Denmark.[7] During his tenure with Les Bleus, he formed a stopper partnership with Marius Trésor which was dubbed La garde noire (black guard).[12][2]

Personal life and injury

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. After an error made by his anaesthetist, he suffered a bronchospasm which starved his brain of oxygen and he slipped into a coma.[13][14][15]

In the mid 1990s, when a court of law adjudicated on the case, both the anesthetist and trainee were given one-month suspended sentences and fines that translated to a $815 fine.[16] His wife continued to tend to his needs, refusing to consider euthanasia.[17]

References
  1. "Jean-Pierre Adams". L'Équipe (in French). Paris. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  2. "Jean-Pierre Adams, le roc noir, dans le coma depuis 33 ans" [Jean-Pierre Adams, the black rock, in a coma 33 years later]. Ouest-France (in French). 6 January 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  3. Bairner, Robin (27 February 2014). "The footballer trapped in 'The House of the Beautiful Sleeping Athlete'". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  4. "'Tragic yet heartwarming': How Jean-Pierre Adams touched a nerve". CNN. 17 March 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  5. "Quand ces ECRIVAINS sont nos anciens..." [When these WRITERS used to be with us.....] (in French). École Saint-Louis. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  6. Greck, Clément (17 March 2018). "Jean-Pierre Adams: Bernadette, sa femme rencontrée à Montargis, veille sur lui sept jours sur sept" [Jean-Pierre Adams: Bernadette, the wife he met at Montargis, at his bedside 24/7]. La République du Centre (in French). Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  7. Goubin, Thomas (17 March 2012). "Jean-Pierre Adams, 30 ans dans le coma" [Jean-Pierre Adams, 30 years in a coma] (in French). So Foot. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  8. Palomar, Roberto (15 March 2016). "Jean Pierre Adams, la mitad de su vida en coma" [Jean Pierre Adams, half his life in a coma]. Marca (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  9. "Jean-Pierre Adams" (in French). Skyrock. 22 February 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  10. Veronese, Andrea. "Cup of the Alps 1972". RSSSF. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  11. Colombari, Bruno (18 May 2012). "1972, une année dans le siècle" [1972, a year in the century] (in French). Chroniques Bleues. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  12. "Avec Marius Trésor, ils étaient "la garde noire" des Bleus" [With Marius Trésor, they were the Blues' "black guard"]. Le Parisien (in French). 17 March 2007. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  13. "30 ans dans le coma: Le destin tragique de Jean-Pierre Adams" [30 years in a coma: The tragic fate of Jean-Pierre Adams] (in French). Ndamli. 21 March 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  14. "Bernadette Adams: l'ange gardien de Jean-Pierre Adams" [Bernadette Adams: Jean-Pierre Adams' guardian angel]. Midi Libre (in French). 26 March 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  15. "L'Eurélienne Bernadette Adams vit au chevet de son mari footballeur, dans le coma depuis 30 ans" [Eurélienne Bernadette Adams lives at her footballer husband's bedside, in a coma after 30 years]. L'Écho Républicain (in French). 20 April 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  16. Piers, Edward (4 January 2016). "Jean-Pierre Adams: The 33-year coma that can't stop love". CNN. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  17. Eli Dokosi, Michael (1 October 2019). "The sad story of Jean-Pierre Adams, the French soccer star who has been in coma for 37 years after botched surgery". Face2Face Africa. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
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