The former international Christophe Dominici was found dead in the park of Saint-Cloud, in Hauts-de-Seine, Tuesday November 24, 2020. He was 48 years old.
The former Stade Français player, who was born on May 20, 1972, in Toulon (Var), climbed on the roof of an abandoned building in the park in the early afternoon before jumping, said a police source . According to the Nanterre prosecutor’s office, a witness saw the former player fall from 10 meters. An investigation to search for the causes of death was opened by the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office.
Arrived at rugby at the age of 18, after having cherished the dream of a football career, Christophe Dominici made his debut in the first division in 1994 with Toulon. He had come to Paris to join the French Stadium, in September 1997, and had won the title of champion of France under the colors red and blue in May 1998, after having released his first international cape at the Stade de France in February of the same year against England.
Anthology victory against the All Blacks
With the XV of France, who selected him 67 times, he won two grand slams, in 1998 and 2004, and two victories in the Six Nations Tournament (2006, 2007), and scored 125 points (25 tries). With Stade Français, he won four French league titles, in 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2004.
The former winger was a finalist in the World Cup in 1999 with the XV of France, against Australia, notably taking a leading part in the anthology victory against New Zealand in the semi-final.
He will subsequently experience a depressive episode, no longer appearing in the Blues between November 2001 and June 2003. He will return to it with Bernard Laporte, then coach after having been his coach at the Stade Français, to become one of the executives, receiving in 2007 the unofficial title of “Captain of the rear lines”.
During the 2007 World Cup, he will no longer be an indisputable holder but will enter the history of the XV of France with his last two tests in Blue, registered against Georgia, which made him the best French scorer in the World Cup ( eight tries).
“If I had been happy, I would not have played rugby”
In 2008, he ended his career and became assistant coach of Ewen McKenzie to take care of the back lines at Stade Français. With Ewen McKenzie, he was dismissed from his post in 2009, but remained at the club and became a 1% shareholder. Since 2011, he has been a rugby consultant for RTL and then for L’Equipe 21, renamed since L’Equipe.
In 2009, he explained: “If I had been happy I wouldn’t have played rugby and maybe I would have done a lot more stupid things, he admits. Rugby allowed me to understand many things: respect life, people, oneself, with values of humility and combat. I was aggressive and I put it at the service of a collective. Today I have a lot more wisdom and maturity. “
Sport was therefore a palliative for him. “If I hadn’t had such a desire for revenge, such aggressiveness, such a desire to exist, I probably wouldn’t have done all that, he explained. But when I was in the middle of it, I would have taken for a fool who would have told me that. “
In recent months, he had been one of the figures of a project to buy back the Béziers club, carried by the Emiratis, but which ultimately failed.
Quickly, on Tuesday, the tributes multiplied. At the National Assembly, the deputies welcomed “A legend of the XV of France”. The vice-president of the French rugby federation, Serge Simon, who was his teammate at the Stade Français, said he was “Collapsed”. “French rugby loses a star, the XV of France a myth, the Stade Français a legend and many of us a friend”, he tweeted. “He leaves a great void in our big family”, reacted the Stade Français.
