Former footballer and father of Yannick Noah, Zacharie Noah, is dead

Born in Cameroon, Yannick Noah's father won the Coupe de France with Sedan in 1961. He died in Yaoundé on Sunday at 79.

Zacharie Noah, who won the French Cup with Sedan in 1961, died on Sunday (January 8th) in Yaounde, Cameroon, at the age of 79, his son Yannick Noah  announced on Twitter.

"This Sunday morning in Yaoundé, Zacharie Noah left us, peacefully in his sleep. He left surrounded by his whole family, "Yannick Noah wrote on his Twitter account. Zacharie and Yannick Noah, for the general public, is above all a picture: that of a father embracing his son a few seconds after his victory in the final of Roland-Garros in 1983, even before Yannick could tighten the Hand of the referee.

Zacharie Noah had descended from the stands, falling by the way, to penetrate the central court and embrace his son in tears for a long time, defeating the security service.

Patriarch of a dynasty of professional sportsmen, he was also the grandfather of Joakim Noah, NBA player at the New York Knicks.

Born February 2, 1937 in Yaounde, then under French domination, Zacharie Noah arrived in France at the age of 13, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye to his sister and his brother-in-law to study. He began his football career as a defender at Stade Saint-Germain in 1956 before being recruited by Sedan, then in the first division and one of the leading clubs of the 1960s in France.

"I had the urg to go, when I was strongly discouraged because of the rigor of the climate and the mentality of the people of the region. (...) I preferred Sedan to the proposals made by the Red Star, the Racing Club de Paris and the Stade Français, "he confided later. He spent his entire career under the direction of Louis Dugauguez in Sedan, with whom he won the Coupe de France in 1961, to the detriment of Nîmes. It is in this town that Yannick was born, after two daughters (Isabelle and Nathalie), of his union with Marie-Claire Noah, a teacher of the Ardennes.

Within the Boar, it is esteemed for its elegance, its solidity, its interceptions, its address, its game of head and its suppleness. Victim of a fracture of the pelvis, Zacharie Noah is forced to stop football, only 25 years old. He then followed closely the career of his son, until his coronation in 1983, the last of a French Grand Slam.

During a visit to Sedan in November 2003, Yannick Noah confided in his father: "Very often, if one parent has a professional career, the son wants to do something else, Counter-foot. My dad played football, I decided to play tennis, my son plays basketball, maybe his son will play marbles. "