Pape-Philippe Amagou, a final-year student on the EDHEC BBA Online programme and current national basketball champion, was interviewed this week by Le Maine Libre 'https://www.lemainelibre.fr'

For many elite athletes, retirement can often be a challenging time. But Pape-Philippe Amagou has had firm plans for the future for quite a while now. “I was raised in a family that put a strong focus on education,” he explains. “My mother often says that if my father had lived longer (ndlr: he died when Pape was just 12), I almost certainly wouldn’t have had a career as a basketball player. He was an engineer and believed that sport is for fun, not a job.”

So Pape-Philippe Amagou made sure he kept up his studies while playing basketball professionally. He would often do some “cramming” while travelling to games. “It was important for my personal life balance,” he says. “I’m in my final year of my bachelor’s degree in finance at EDHEC. I’m finishing my dissertation and I just found a company where I can complete my internships. I’ve also set up some companies (in multimedia and telephone communications with Alain Koffi): it was a natural process.”

Amagou is very generous, both on and off the court. His involvement with the association Giving Back (for which he serves as ambassador), which helps the underprivileged develop through sport, is proof of this. “I’ve had some amazing experiences with them. Real life lessons. I visited orphanages in Burkina Faso, for example. It’s about helping people when you’ve had so much luck in your own life. And actually, they’re the ones who end up giving you so much. It makes you feel more mature as a person.”
As for basketball, for the time being it’s well and truly behind him. “I could never see myself becoming a coach with the pros,” he admits. “If I come back to it, it will be to share my passion with young players. For now, I’ll be watching from the couch [laughs].

About EDHEC BBA Online:

The Online programme is the only 100% distance learning programme tailored to the demands and constraints facing students who perform as elite athletes, work as entrepreneurs or musicians, or suffer from a disability. It builds on the specific expertise of EDHEC in remote teaching and the ideas developed by staff at the Pedagogical Innovation Lab to come up with a fully online programme.
Accreditations: EQUIS, AACSB
Designated level Bac+4 by the French Education Ministry
More information: https://bba.edhec.edu/fr/parcours/online