The football world is in mourning: Former international Fadel Fall has passed away at the age of 85.

Former Senegalese international Mouhamed Fadel Fall passed away on Friday, June 19, 2026. He will be buried later today in Tivaouane. A native of Tivaouane, he led a distinguished professional career encompassing football, teaching, and diplomacy.

A former player for Club Olympique Thiessois (COT), Fadel Fall joined the national team at a very young age before quickly retiring from football to dedicate himself to education. For several years, he lived in the Cité Ouvrière neighborhood of Thiès, where he passed away at the age of 85.

A promising start between Tivaouane and Thiès

In the early 1960s, a young footballer named Mouhamed Fadel Fall arrived in Thiès from Tivaouane. A teacher by profession, he joined COT under the influence of the late Tidjane Diop, then a club official. Diop would later become his father-in-law.

It was he who, very early on, detected the talent of the young Fadel Fall in Tivaouane and convinced him to join COT, at a time when the player was nevertheless a fervent supporter of Foyer France-Sénégal.

First spotted in his hometown, then at the Mbour teacher training college during inter-school competitions, Mouhamed Fadel Fall followed a path that would lead him to the 1965 Africa Cup of Nations.

A key figure in Senegal's first AFCON

In Thiès, the prodigy from Tivaouane quickly integrated into COT, warmly welcomed by the club's extended family, including prominent figures like Pape Sow and Gorgui Alioune Diouf. The legendary Bouba Diakhao also played a crucial role in his development. His arrival in Thiès allowed the young player to climb the ranks and earn a place on the national team, which he represented for two years, between 1963 and 1965.

A very technical footballer, intelligent in the game and difficult to mark, Fadel Fall participated in Senegal's first AFCON in 1965. He also belonged to the generation that won the Friendship Games in 1963, alongside Souleymane Jules Diop, Demba Thioye, Youssou Ndiaye and El Hadj Malick Sy ''Souris''.

A career change into teaching and diplomacy

After hanging up his football boots, Fadel Fall devoted himself fully to his career as a schoolteacher. Later, he embarked on a diplomatic career, joining the Senegalese embassy in Canada in the 1990s.

The legacy of a respected man

Mouhamed Fadel Fall passed away on Friday, June 19, 2026. Honorary President of the Association of Former Stars of Thiès, this calm, composed, and thoughtful man left a lasting impression wherever he went. From Tivaouane to Thiès, including the neighborhoods of Takhikao, Dixième, and Cité Ouvrière, where he lived, his legacy will remain etched in our memories.

For his final journey, his family chose the holy city of Tivaouane for the eternal rest of his soul.