Marc-Vivien Foé (; 21 May 1975 – 26 June 2003) was a Cameroonian professional footballer, who played as a defensive midfielder.
Having initially played for Canon Yaoundé, Foé went on to play professionally in Ligue 1 and the Premier League with Lens, West Ham United, Lyon and Manchester City. On 26 June 2003, Foé died suddenly during an international match for Cameroon, an event which shocked the football community worldwide. The death was later ruled to be due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. He was capped 62 times by his nation and had scored 8 goals.
He was posthumously decorated with the Commander of the National Order of Valour and had his shirt numbers 23 and 17 retired by Manchester City and Lens, respectively.
Club career
Foé was born on 21 May 1975 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. He started as a junior with Elite Two side Union de Garoua. Moving to Canon Yaoundé, one of the biggest clubs in Cameroon, he won the Cameroonian Cup in 1993.
After turning down Auxerre for a trainee position, he signed for another French club, RC Lens of Ligue 1. His debut on 13 August 1994 was a 2–1 win against Montpellier. Further negotiations between the clubs were curtailed abruptly after he broke a leg at Cameroon's pre-World Cup training camp, and subsequently missed the whole of the 1998 World Cup.
Shortly after his recovery, he moved to English Premier League club West Ham United, for a club record fee of £4.2 million in January 1999. He played 38 league matches for West Ham, scoring one goal against Sheffield Wednesday. He also scored a goal in West Ham's 3–1 win against NK Osijek in the UEFA Cup.
In May 2000, he moved back to France, joining Lyon on a £6 million transfer. He missed much of the season after he developed symptoms of malaria. After recovery, he won the Coupe de la Ligue in 2001, and the Division 1 league title a year later.
Foé then returned to the English Premier League, loaned to Manchester City in the 2002–03 season for £550,000. His debut on the opening day of the season was a 3–0 loss to Leeds United. Foé was a first team regular for Kevin Keegan's team, starting 38 of 41 matches. His first goal for the club came against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on 9 December 2002, and he scored five more goals in the next month. His second goal in a 3–0 victory against Sunderland on 21 April 2003 was the club's final goal at their old Maine Road stadium.
International career
Foé began representing Cameroon at under-20s when he was called up to the squad of 18 players for the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship in Australia, under the management of Jean Manga-Onguéné. He played in all of their three group stage matches, scoring one goal in a 3–2 defeat to Colombia in their second match on 8 March 1993, as Cameroon were eventually eliminated from the competition after finishing third.
The following year, he was included in the Cameroon squad for the 1994 World Cup, starting all three of their matches. Team members had been in various financial and disciplinary disputes with the Cameroon Football Association, and the squad was a shadow of the one which had famously reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 1990. Cameroon mustered just one point from three matches, and finished with an embarrassing 6–1 defeat to Russia. However, Foé's consistently strong performances as a defensive midfielder (including a goal assist) prompted interest from European clubs.
He was in the Cameroon squad in the 2002 World Cup. As in 1994, he played in all of Cameroon's matches. Though the team performed better than in 1994, they were again eliminated at the group stage, having beaten Saudi Arabia, drawn with Ireland and lost to Germany. with no other players near him. After attempts to resuscitate him on the pitch, he was stretchered off the field, where he received mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and oxygen. Medics spent 45 minutes attempting to restart his heart and although he was still alive upon arrival at the stadium's medical centre, he died shortly afterwards. a hereditary condition known to increase the risk of sudden death during physical exercise.
Foé's widow Marie-Louise stated that he had been ill with gastric problems and dysentery before his final match, but he was adamant to play in his adopted hometown of Lyon. Cameroon manager Winfried Schäfer wanted to substitute him minutes before his collapse, observing that the player seemed fatigued, but he signalled that he wanted to continue.
Personal life
Foé was a practising Roman Catholic and donated money to charity regularly. He held Cameroonian and French nationalities.
Tributes
Foé's death caused a profound shock. Numerous tributes to his joyous personality and infectious humour were expressed in the media. France national team player Thierry Henry and other French players pointed to the sky in tribute to Foé after Henry had opened the scoring against Turkey in their Confederations Cup semi-final that evening.
thumb|right|Tribute plaque at the [[City of Manchester Stadium]]
It was suggested that the Confederations Cup and the Stade Gerland could have been renamed after him, and Manchester City manager Kevin Keegan announced that the club would no longer use the number 23 shirt Foé wore during his successful season there. At Manchester City's former ground, Maine Road, there is a small memorial to him in the stadium's memorial garden, and on the walls of the players' tunnel are plaques paid for by supporters, with their names, dubbed the Walk of Pride. The first plaque on the wall is for Marc and reads "Marc Vivien Foé – 1975–2003". His first club, Lens, gave his name to an avenue near the Stade Félix Bollaert. Foé was given a state funeral in Cameroon.
|-
!rowspan="2"|Club
!rowspan="2"|Season
!colspan="3"|League
!colspan="2"|National Cup
!colspan="2"|League Cup
!colspan="2"|Continental
!colspan="2"|Total
|-
!Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="6"|Lens
|1994–95
|rowspan="5"|Division 1
|15||3||||||||||||||15||3
|-
|1995–96
|19||2||||||||||||||19||2
|-
|1996–97
|28||2||||||||||||||28||2
|-
|1997–98
|18||2||||||||||0||0||18||2
|-
|1998–99
|5||2|||||||||||1||0||6||2
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!85||11||||||||||1||0||86||11
|-
|rowspan="3"|West Ham United
|1998–99
|rowspan="2"|Premier League
|13||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||13||0
|-
|1999–2000
|25||1||1||0||3||0||3||1||32||2
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!38||1||1||0||3||0||3||1||45||2
|-
|rowspan="3"|Lyon
|2000–01
|rowspan="2"|Division 1
|25||1||3||0||3||0||8||1||39||2
|-
|2001–02
|18||2||0||0||0||0||8||0||26||2
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!43||3||3||0||3||0||16||1||65||4
|-
|Manchester City (loan)
|2002–03
|Premier League
|35||9||1||0||2||0||0||0||38||9
|-
!colspan="3"|Career total
!201||24||5||0||8||0||20||2||234||26
|}
International
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year
|-
!National team||Year||Apps||Goals
|-
|rowspan="11"|Cameroon
|1993||2||0
|-
|1994||6||0
|-
|1995||2||1
|-
|1996||4||0
|-
|1997||6||0
|-
|1998||5||0
|-
|1999||2||0
|-
|2000||8||3
|-
|2001||9||2
|-
|2002||14||2
|-
|2003||4||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total||62||8
|}
International goals
:Cameroon score listed first, score column indicates score after each Foé goal.
;West Ham United
- UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1999
;Lyon
- Division 1: 2001–02
- Coupe de la Ligue: 2000–01
Cameroon
- African Cup of Nations: 2000, 2002
- FIFA Confederations Cup: runner up, 2003
Individual
- FIFA Confederations Cup Bronze Ball: 2003
See also
- List of association footballers who died while playing
References
External links
- Marc-Vivien Foé international statistics at 11v11.com