Pape Diouf

Mababa Diouf, known as Papa Diouf or Pape Diouf (18 December 1951 - 31 March 2020) was a Franco-Senegalese football journalist, agent, and later president of Olympique de Marseille from 2005 to 2009.A descendant of a Senegalese military family, Pape Diouf arrived in France at the age of 18. After studying political science, he worked, during the 1970's and 1980's, as a sports journalist, maintaining a football column in newspaper La Marseillaise, which focused on Marseille sports life, including Olympique de Marseille. In the late 1980s, he joined the daily Le Sport, which was supposed to compete with L'Équipe, but ultimately failed.

Linked to many people in football, he then became a football agent for several players in the 1990's until 2004. That year, he joined the Olympique de Marseille club as general manager, then became chairman of the executive board. He was appointed president in 2005, being the first, and only since, black president of a French professional club. He remained in this post for four years before being ousted in 2009 following internal disagreements. Although under his presidency, the club did not win any trophies, they remained in the top 5 of the French Championship standings and regained stability despite a financially difficult period. He later took part in the creation of a journalism school in Marseille and in conferences on football, switching between France and Senegal. He died in Dakar at the age of 68, victim of the COVID-19 pandemic.