Former French international defender Jean-Pierre Adams died Monday at the age of 73, after 39 years in a coma due to an anesthesia accident during a routine knee operation.
“We learned this morning of the disappearance of Jean-Pierre Adams”, wrote the club of Nîmes Olympique on Twitter announcing the death of his former player, plunged into a coma since 1982. He had lived since, under the surveillance of his wife Bernadette, at her home in the Gard.
“He had worn the colors of Nîmes Olympique 84 times and formed with Marius Trésor” the black guard “in the French team,” added the club, presenting its “most sincere condolences to his relatives and his family.”
Selected 22 times under the jersey of the French team between 1972 and 1976, Jean-Pierre Adams had a rich career in the 70s, including Nîmes, OGC Nice and Paris SG, which also has paid tribute to “one of his glorious elders,” saluting the “joy of life” and “charisma” of the former central defender.
OGC Nice said a tribute would be paid to him on Sunday 19 September at its Allianz Riviera stadium.
“Jean-Pierre Adams was an example by his life course and his career as a respected and feared player, whether with his successive clubs Nîmes, Nice and PSG in the French championship or in the French team. He formed a duo of legendary defenders with Marius Trésor which all fans of the Blues and soccer remember, ”greeted the President of the French Football Federation Noël Le Graët on the FFF website.
In addition to Marius Trésor, Jean-Pierre Adams had notably evolved in the French team with Raymond Domenech, Dominique Rocheteau, Jean Djorkaeff, Jean-Michel Larqué or Michel Platini – for only one meeting, the last cape of the defender with the Blues.
Nicknamed “Le Roc”, recalls the FFF, Jean-Pierre Adams, born in Dakar in 1948, has never taken part in an international competition with the French team. In club, he was vice-champion of France twice, in 1972 with Nîmes and in 1976 with Nice.
Two anesthetists and the civil hospices of Lyon were sentenced in the late 1980s and early 1990s for their responsibility in the accident which had plunged Jean-Pierre Adams into a coma.
Before the court, the doctors – including a trainee – had notably highlighted their overwork. Left under the supervision of the trainee anesthesiologist, Jean-Pierre Adams had felt unwell, then respiratory arrest, from which he had never woken up.
.
