Christophe Dominici facts for kids

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Christophe Dominici

Playing for Stade Français in 2008
Birth name	Christophe Dominici
Date of birth	(1972-05-20)20 May 1972
Place of birth	Toulon, France
Date of death	24 November 2020(2020-11-24) (aged 48)
Place of death	Saint-Cloud, France
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Weight	180 lb (82 kg)
Rugby union career
Position(s) Wing Youth Career 1989–1991 Solliès-Pont Senior career Years Team Apps (Points) 1991–1993 1993–1997 1997–2008 La Valette Toulon Stade Français ? ? 142 ? ? (238) National team(s) Years Team Apps (Points) 1998–2007 France 65 (125) Correct as of 28 July 2008 Teams coached Years Team 2008–2009 Stade Français (backs)

Christophe Dominici (20 May 1972 – 24 November 2020) was a French rugby union player. In a career spanning seventeen years between 1991 and 2008, he played wing for Stade Français and France, scoring a total of 25 tries in 67 international caps, emerging as one of the giants of French rugby. He also served as a member of the coaching staff at Stade Français between 2008 and 2009. He had represented French clubs RC La Valette and RC Toulonnais earlier in his career.

Early life

Christophe Dominici was born in Toulon to a family from Santa-Reparata-di-Balagna, in Corsica. By his own account he had a difficult, sometimes turbulent childhood. He was outstanding at football and for a while was training with AS Monaco, where he met Lilian Thuram, with whom he maintained a close friendship. However he decided to concentrate on rugby at which he showed exceptional talent and was already playing regularly for Solliès-Pont at a young age.

Career

Club career

Dominici started his club career with RC La Valette in 1991, before joining his home town side RC Toulonnais, where he was a regular for four seasons from 1993 to 1997. He moved to Stade Français in Paris in 1997, representing the club through 2008, and emerging as one of the giants of French club rugby. He was part of an era when Stade Français won five French championships. He later joined their coaching staff as an assistant coach at the start of the 2008-09 season.

International career

Dominici burst onto the international scene in 1998 with a try-scoring debut against England. The following year, he lit up the 1999 Rugby World Cup with his pace, particularly in France's semi-final 43 – 31 win against the All Blacks where he scored a memorable try.

Dominici had a fine try-scoring record and grabbed four during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, but he had a nightmare of a moment in the 2004 Six Nations Championship against Italy when, having crossed the try-line, he dropped the ball when trying to put it down with one hand. However, France had still gone on to win the game 25 – 0. He started all five of Les Bleus' 2005 RBS Six Nations games.

He announced his international retirement on 5 January 2008, when his club side Stade Français scored a 33 – 6 home win over Montpellier. He went on to say in his retirement statement:

France, it is over for me. It has been a big part of my life. At a certain moment, you must know to turn the page. There are other players who are also capable of bringing something [to the team]. It is a new beginning, with an objective in four years' time [the 2011 World Cup]. ... If I am honest, I know that I will not make that.

Christophe Dominici won a total of 67 caps for France between 1998 and 2007, scoring 25 tries, including 8 across three world cups, with the last of the games being a defeat to Argentina in the World Cup bronze-medal match in October 2007. He was a member of the French team that won four Six Nations titles, including grand slams in 1998 and 2004.

Despite having a diminutive physique, he was acknowledged to have had beaten the best of defenses to emerge as one of the country's best wingers. His career, however, was not without its setbacks and off-field problems.

Post-retirement

Post his retirement, Dominici worked as a sports expert on French TV and radio. He had also taken part in the third season of Danse avec les stars, France's version of Dancing with the Stars, partnering with French model and dancer Candice Pascal; the couple was first to be eliminated.

In early 2020, he had worked with a United Arab Emirates based consortium to bid for Béziers rugby club based in southern France. The club was facing financial difficulties. However, the bid did not go through and was halted by the sport's financial regulator.

Personal life

In his life off the field, Dominici was known to have suffered bouts of depression. In his autobiography, Bleu à l'âme, published in May 2007, he reveals that the death of his older sister had triggered depression. He also went on to write about being abused as a child. Friends had also acknowledged that he had not taken the failed financial bid for the Béziers rugby club very well.

Records and statistics

Source(s):

Club career

• French Rugby Union Championship/Top 14 1997 – 98, 1999 – 2000, 2002 – 03, 2003 – 04, 2006 – 07
• Finalist: 2004 – 05
• Finalist: Heineken Cup (European Cup) 2000 – 2001, 2004 – 05
• French Cup winner: 1998 – 99
• Finalist: 1997 – 98

International career

• 67 caps for France 1998 to 2007
• 25 Tries (125 points)
• Caps by Year: 4 in 1998, 10 in 1999, 4 in 2000, 8 in 2001, 9 in 2003, 7 in 2004, 5 in 2005, 8 in 2006, 7 in 2007
• Six/Five Nations appearances: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007

Rugby World Cup

• Rugby World Cup 2007 : 3 Appearances v Argentina, Georgia, New Zealand

2 Tries (2 v Georgia)

• Rugby World Cup 2003 : 5 Appearances v Fiji, Japan, Scotland, Ireland, England

4 Tries (2 against Fiji, 1 v Japan, 1 v Ireland)

• 1999 Rugby World Cup : 5 appearances v Canada, Fiji, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia

2 Tries (1 v Fiji, 1 v New Zealand)

Autobiography

(french)

See also

In Spanish: Christophe Dominici para niños