Bypassed PSG and OM, Modest M’Bami died at 40.

The symbolic figure of the French Championship, Modest M’Bami, died this Saturday, January 7, at the age of 40. The former Cameroonian midfielder, who went through, in particular, Sedan, PSG and Olympique Marseille, died of a heart attack in the city of Le Havre, where he lived.

The announcement of the death of the international footballer who wore his national team shirt 38 times came as a shock to French football, which he grew up with before becoming one of the emblematic Ligue 1 players during the 2000s. over the years has established himself as one of the very good midfielders in the elite. His kindness, his sweet side and his benevolence were appreciated by people who knew him during his wealthy career.

Modest M’Bami was born in Yaoundé in 1982 and grew up in the difficult circumstances of the Cameroonian capital. “I was born in a very hot area of ​​Yaoundé,” he told us in 2004. The older brothers had a thousand times more talent than me. But they went in strange ways and were eventually killed. Maybe it was my guardian angel who made me avoid certain things. I could be wrong. For my father, a storekeeper in an import-export box, you had to go to school. He wanted to protect us. We were not allowed to walk along the road or to meet others. I didn’t even know that the football field was 100 meters from my house. »

He trained in Cameroon, in tournaments organized by local breweries, then at the Kaji Sports Academy located in Douala, where he was spotted before continuing his professional career in France wearing the 2000-2001 CS Sedan Ardennes jersey. Although the Ardennes club were relegated at the end of the 2002-2003 season, the performances of the Cameroonian midfielder stood out and Vahid Halilhodzic, who had just been appointed PSG manager, made him his priority target to strengthen his midfield in the summer of 2003. His volume of play and collector’s qualities make him a valuable player in the Parisian system.

Le Havre, his last club

In the capital, M’Bami formed a solid pair of defensive midfielders alongside Lorik Kana to see PSG finish second in the French league and qualify for the Champions League next season. His meteoric progress was finally halted by a fibula injury in December 2004.

He would play 101 games for PSG and win two French Cups before switching clubs. In the summer of 2006, his move to Olympique Marseille was seen as a betrayal by the Parisian fans. There he will find his Albanian partner… Lorik Kan, who left a year earlier to reform the duet he had formed in the capital.

As fate would have it, he played his first match in the Olympic jersey against PSG on the Parc turf, face to face with his former fans. He would play for three seasons for La Canebière, with ups and downs before continuing his career in Spain, China, Saudi Arabia and Colombia. He will finish it in Ligue 2 at Le Havre in 2016 in relative anonymity.

Olympic title with Cameroon

He will also remain the emblematic player of the Indomitable Lions generation of the Eto’o generation, with whom he won the 2000 Sydney Olympics. become a local hero. It will also include the 2003 Confederations Cup final against France and the 2008 CAN final.