Sad news for French television. Star presenter of France 2, with notably “Des chiffres et des lettres”, “Fort Boyard” and “Pyramide”, Patrice Laffont died this Wednesday at the age of 84. The former presenter succumbed to a heart attack in his home in Oppède, in this south that he loved so much.
The son of publisher Robert Laffont was born in Marseille and remained very close to the Phocaean city in general and to Olympique de Marseille in particular. He also tried in 2009 to become president of OM, sending a letter of motivation to Robert Louis-Dreyfus, then owner of the club. A letter that remained unanswered.
“I would have been a magnificent president”
Patrice Laffont did not give up, however, and tried to go through Jean-Louis Gaudin, the mayor of the city. “Mr. Gaudin, you have a guy who is well-known – I was much more in the media at the time, who knows football very well and who is from Marseille. I have the profile of a president!”he confided in 2017 in the show Y a pas péno! on Europe 1. But the mayor’s response was unequivocal: “But Laffont, do you have 250 million euros? No? Then you will never be president of OM!”
“I would have been a magnificent president,” he continued, adding: “All the same, I would have made a more glamorous president than Jean-Claude Dassier.” Patrice Laffont would not have been the first club president to have worked on television. Jean-Claude Dassier, Michel Denisot, Charles Biétry and Nicolas de Tavernost have all held the helm of a major club after making a career in television.
