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When we talk to him about the future, Omar Daf (45), whom some imagine will one day sit on the bench of the Senegalese selection, replies that only the present interests him. A present that is written in Dijon, where he was appointed in June, after four years at Sochaux, his favorite club. “My goal is to bring Dijon, an ambitious club which has the means to achieve it, to Ligue 1, which we almost achieved with Sochaux last season”he says.
His team, which remains on a negative streak (one draw, four defeats), after occupying first place in the standings, travels to Amiens, the co-leader, on Saturday October 8, for a meeting of the utmost importance. “It’s a new adventure that begins for me, who had never trained elsewhere than in Sochaux”, he specifies.
The Dakar native is one of the few sub-Saharans to coach a professional team in Europe. ” It is not illogical that European clubs choose European technicians first, who know European football better, in a market where there is a lot of competition.he believes, hoping however that this situation will not be frozen.
From Senegal to Belgium
His passion for football has family roots. His father Mamadou, now deceased, played in Division 1 at US Gorée in addition to his work as a commercial inspector at Yoplait, while his uncle Habib, also passed by this club, wore the jersey of the selection. national.
This family prism for football, sometimes tempered by an understanding mother but who never forgot to remind him of the importance of studying, made him leave Senegal at the age of 17 for Belgium, where he had such a painful experience. useful for his adult construction. Spotted by an agent during a match played with his high school team, he thinks of joining the prestigious Standard Liège, one of the best clubs in the kingdom. It will finally be Westerlo, in Belgian D2, in Flanders where French is hardly used.
” I didn’t understand much, I didn’t play much, I went to practice on my bike, and it wasn’t near my house. They didn’t help me and that made me understand that, on the contrary, I had to open up to others. Sometimes I wanted to go back to Dakar, but I hung on. “Far from the beaches of the capital, from his family and his friends, ” nostalgic for the smells of Dakar, too », Omar Daf finds one of his brothers in Thonon-les-Bains, in French Division 4, where he is detected by Sochaux.
” I knew he had struggled in Belgium, that in Thonon he did odd jobs during the day and trained in the evening. He arrived in Sochaux, a few months before me, and he was one of those guys who wanted it, who have a huge mind “, says Jean-Claude Plessis, emblematic president of FC Sochaux (1999-2008). The former manager remembers a player ” calm, composed, who went to talk to the young people of the training center when some slipped. Omar first thinks collectively and it is natural that he became a coach”.
“A moderating element”
Faithful to FC Sochaux, where he remained from 1997 to 2009, before returning to finish his playing career there in 2012-2013, after three seasons in Brest and starting his career change there, Omar Daf was also one of the pillars of the Senegalese selection. With the Lions of Teranga, he notably participated in the crazy year 2002, punctuated by a final of the African Cup of Nations lost against Cameroon and a quarter-final of the World Cup.
International Ferdinand Coly, who rubbed shoulders with him in a den populated by egos and strong personalities, describes him as ” a moderating element. He got on well with everyone, knew how to speak when necessary and his level-headedness commanded respect. We guessed in him, while he was still a player, an attraction for the job of coach, because he was curious and already had this concern to transmit”.
During his career as a player, in club as in selection, Omar Daf met coaches who sometimes inspired him, to the point of recording his notes in a notebook that never left him. Including French coach Bruno Metsu (who died in 2013), who led Senegal so high in 2002. He influenced me, in the sense that he knew how to be very close to the players, sometimes allowing a form of self-management to take hold in the group, while being hyperdemanding. »
Omar Daf also uses his Muslim faith to improve his relationship with his players: “ I am very religious and spirituality helps me reflect on the behavior I had with them. An openness to others that he tries to practice in other areas of his life. As soon as he can, Omar Daf frees himself from his daily life to look for a way to help a village in Senegal or elsewhere on the African continent. “You send 1,500 euros and that will finance one or two projects in a poorly equipped municipality and that will improve people’s lives”he describes.
Here is Omar Daf finally ready to discuss his future, not necessarily where we would have imagined it: “There will come a time in my life when I will totally invest myself in humanitarian work. » And to clarify: Football takes up a lot of space in our liveshe says, but it is important to have other centers of interest. »