For anyone who is familiar with French football, the addition of Pape Diouf to the growing list of deaths from COVID-19 is heartbreaking and hard to accept. 

"Pape will remain in the hearts of the Marseillais forever, as one of the great architects in the club's history," Olympique de Marseille said in an emotional statement after their former president died late Tuesday aged 68 in Dakar, Senegal. 

As the first ever black boss of an elite European football club, he led the French giants between 2005-2009 and helped build the side that lifted the Ligue 1 title in 2010. 

Born in Chad to Senegalese parents, Diouf moved to Marseille at the age of 18.  He worked at the La Marseillaise newspaper before changing careers to become a football agent, handling some of Africa's top talent including Didier Drogba. 

He was brought on to the club's payroll as general manager in 2004 and a year later rose to become president."A difficult post, where there were very few men from diverse backgrounds," said Jacques-Henri Eyraud, the club's current president. 

"But he fought tooth and nail, and won the hearts of thousands of supporters." 

Diouf was acutely aware of the lack of diversity in the boardrooms of European clubs, telling an interviewer in 2008 that it was painful to him that he was the only black president of an European club. 

"I am the only black president of a European club. It's a painful observation" but one that "fits the image of a European society, especially French society, that excludes ethnic minorities," Diouf said. 

"He was a man of conviction, a man of wit and passion for the game and all those involved in it," observed French World Cup-winning national coach Didier Deschamps, who was recruited as Marseille coach by Diouf in 2009. "His sudden and brutal passing saddens me deeply." 

"He knew football, the media, the agents and the players," said Louis Acaries, adviser to Marseille's then owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus. "But above all he was a man. And a good man."

Adama Ndione, vice president of an Olympique de Marseille fan club in Senegal, added he had "spilled a lot of tears" over his hero's death.  

"He was a Senegalese, a perfect example of success in everything he did, an example for us," Ndione said. 

Tributes have poured in for Diouf from Senegalese dignitaries, with President Macky Sall calling him an "eminence grise of football" and the singer Youssou Ndour saying he was a "formidable and multi-dimensional man." 

Diouf was the first to die from coronavirus in Senegal. There are fears that the local government is ill-equipped for a large outbreak. The country has recorded 190 coronavirus infections to date.  

"Pape's death raises awareness through its strong resonance," psychologist Serigne Mor Mbaye was quoted as saying in local media. "We saw him as omnipotent, at an inaccessible level," he added. 

(With input from agencies)