Othniel Dossevi

Othniel Dossevi
Personal information
Full name Othniel Dossevi
Date of birth (1947-01-13) 13 January 1947 (age 77)
Place of birth Lomé, French Togoland
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Winger, forward
Youth career
1962–1963 Étoile Filante de Lomé
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1963–1967 Tours
1967–1971 Montferrand
1971–1972 Ambert
1972–1975 Paris Saint-Germain 19 (7)
1975–1977 Paris FC 33 (12)
1977–1978 Jeanne d'Arc
1980–1981 Pithiviers
1981–1982 Avion
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Othniel Dossevi (born 13 January 1947) is a Togolese former professional footballer who played as a winger and forward.[1]

Career

Dossevi started playing football in France for Tours in 1963.[2] He was the first African to play for Paris Saint-Germain,[3] and also scored the first PSG goal ever scored at the Parc des Princes, in a match against Red Star on 10 November 1973.[2] Dossevi played for PSG for three seasons, and later played for Paris FC between 1975 and 1977.[3] From 1977 to 1978, he was a player at Senegalese club Jeanne d'Arc, but from 1978 to 1980, he was executive director at the club.[4] In 1980, Dossevi returned to France to play amateur football with Pithiviers and Avion before retiring in 1982.[4]

Dossevi never played for the Togo national team due to his opposition to Togolese dictator Gnassingbé Eyadéma. He has stated: "I would not have been able to play for the team of a man who reigned over Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005, who stole and killed people and who did not envisage democracy. But [not having represented Togo] it is a great regret."[5]

Personal life

Dossevi was born in Lomé, French Togoland,[6] He moved to Tours, France in 1963,[2] and later became a naturalized French citizen.[6] After retiring from football, he worked as a French, Greek, Latin, and literature teacher at the Lycée Camille-Jullian [fr] in Bordeaux.[4][7] Dossevi's brother Pierre-Antoine is a retired footballer and his nephews Thomas and Mathieu, are also footballers. Othniel's children, Damiel and Narayane, are also athletes.[5]

On 21 July 2020, before the kick-off of a friendly match between PSG and Celtic at the Parc des Princes, Dossevi was handed a 2020–21 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 to commemorate 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.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Othniel DOSSEVI". Histoire du #PSG (in French). 29 May 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Le premier buteur du PSG au Parc des Princes est…un agrégé de lettres". Europe 1 (in French). 11 August 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  3. ^ a b De Macedo, Sylvie (23 November 2018). "Othniel Dossevi : "Si le PSG existe, c'est un peu grâce à moi"" [Othniel Dossevi: "If PSG exists, it's a bit thanks to me"]. Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  4. ^ a b c "Othniel DOSSEVI". PSG70 (in French). Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Othniel Dossevi : " Le PSG était pour moi un job d'étudiant "" [Othniel Dossevi: "PSG was a student job for me"]. PSG70 (in French). Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  6. ^ a b Hautbois, Yohann (2020). Les 100 choses que tout fan du PSG doit savoir avant de mourir (in French). Talent Sport. ISBN 9782378150976.
  7. ^ "Les hommes du premier match du PSG au Parc des Princes". Le Parisien (in French). 9 September 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  8. ^ "Othniel Dossevi at the Parc des Princes". Paris Saint-Germain. 21 July 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2021.