Ex-France defender Jean-Pierre Adams has passed away at the age of 73, after staying in a coma for almost 40 years due to a medical error, as confirmed by former clubs Paris Saint-Germain and Nimes on Monday.
Adams was born in Dakar, Senegal in March 1948 and moved to France as a 10-year-old on a pilgrimage with his grandmother in Montargis.
He was quickly adopted by a French couple and started playing football for local clubs in Loiret while studying and working at a rubber factory.
His major breakthrough into the professional ranks came at Nimes, where he played from 1970-1973 with a four-year stint at Nice lodged between a move to PSG at the end of the decade.
Winning 22 caps for reigning World Cup champions Les Bleus, he formed a formidable partnership with Marius Tresor which became known as 'the Black Guard'.
In 1982, however, tragedy struck when Adams was wrongfully given a near-fatal dose of anesthetic ahead of a routine knee operation that caused him brain damage.
Ever since, his wife Bernadette had cared for him at their home in Nimes, and in 2007 said: "Jean-Pierre feels, smells, hears, jumps when a dog barks. But he cannot see."
His death was confirmed by Nimes and Lionel Messi's new employers, who wrote on Twitter: "PSG lost, this Monday, September 6, one of its glorious veterans.
"A defender of the red and blue and the France national team, Jean-Pierre Adams wore the Parisian colors from 1977 to 1979.
The Club extends its condolences to his family and loved ones," it finished.
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