the heartbreaking story of Oscar Boutez’s father

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Nearly two months after the tragic disappearance of Medhi Narjissi in South Africa, the father of Oscar Boutezthe young player from the French U18 team who had tried to help Medhi, delivered his heartbreaking account of tragedy in the columns of Parisian. He also talks about his fear as a parent but also about the inaction of the management on site.

Narjissi affair: the edifying story of Oscar Boutez’s father

“I want people to see me as a rugby player, to talk about what I do on the field and not just through this story,” hopes Rochelais Oscar Boutez today. Whether he likes it or not, and to his credit he doesn’t seem to want it, this hero label will stick to him for a while. At least in the eyes of Djalil Narjissi, Medhi’s father.

Quite simply because that day, Oscar with his 2^e line in formation (1m97, 100 kg), tried something when he saw his friend struggling with waves bigger than him.

“He went for it, swam like he knows how to do, he took his friend on his back. But the waves were impressive. The fourth was a 5 meter high wall. He found himself half knocked out at the bottom of the water. Medhi had disappeared. He returned to the beach with great difficulty,” relates his father Édouard.

Oscar Boutez alone to have dived

The internal investigation carried out by the FFR had already returned an unequivocal verdict, the words of Oscar Boutez’s father seem to confirm it: this fateful August 7 on the beach of Dias Beach near the Cape of Good Hope, no one other than his son did not act.

“No adult intervened, they all stayed on the beach because they were afraid. This obviously raises questions,” he emphasizes.

Now, while the adults in charge are torn apart, the children must rebuild themselves: “As soon as we found him, after their repatriation the next day, we kept him with us for three days. With his mother Isabelle, we wanted him to talk, to not keep everything to himself. It did him good. »

“We were afraid. We were very scared. But now he needs to move forward. So we owe it to ourselves to try to turn the page,” concludes Édouard Boutez.

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