Leonard Francois (born in the 1980s) is a tennis coach and the father of Naomi Osaka, a professional tennis player.
Her father, Leonard Francois is her trainer and coach. He is responsible for inculcating the love for tennis in her. Leonard thus must be a great personality himself.
| Leonard Francois Profile Summary | |
|---|---|
| Name | Leonard Francois |
| Birth Date | 1980 |
| Age | 42 Years Old |
| Height | In Feet & Inches: 6' 0" In Centimeters: 183 cm In Meters: 1.83m |
| Weight | In Kilograms:70 kg In Pounds:140 lbs |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Wife | Tamaki Osaka |
| Children | Naomi Osaka, Mari Osaka |
| Nationality | American |
Who is Leonard Francois?
Leonard Francois is a tennis coach and the father of Naomi Osaka, a professional tennis player.
Leonard is the reason behind Naomi’s success since he taught his two children how to play tennis from the day they were strong enough to hold the tennis rackets.
Leonard was able to identify the talent of his two daughters and started to train them early on in their lives.
Early Life of Leonard Francois
Leonard Maxime Francois’s age and date of birth are not known in the public view.
However, some sources trace his birth year to be around the 1980s, which means that he could be in his 42s as of 2023.
Leonard was born in Jacmel, Haiti, and is of Haitian nationality. The names of his parents are not known.
Also whether he has any siblings or not is also not in public view.
However, his ethnicity is black and he is originally of African descent.
Leonard is a Christian by birth.
His early schooling is not exactly known but it is speculated that he completed high school in Haiti.
Later he got a graduation degree from New York University. He was interested in sports from a young age and later became a coach to his daughters.
Leonard Francois Career
Naomi Osaka’s father is a tennis coach who started training his daughters, Mari and Naomi, while they were very young.
He has always been supportive of their career and has been the biggest cheerleader in their lives.
During an interview, Naomi even revealed that her father is always very nervous during her matches. She said: “I think he might take long walks because maybe my matches stress him out.”
And yes her father is the man behind all her success.
Here is what she said concerning Leonard Francois’ job, which is training them: “When I was growing up, my mum always worked, my mother was working a lot because my dad was always with us. He was the one who was our coach.”
To ensure that there was a total commitment to training his daughters to be superstars, he did not send them to school. Instead, he homeschooled them so that he could intertwine their academic and tennis education.
He trained Mari and Naomi and always encouraged them to achieve the best.
He also thought it was better for them to represent Japan in international matches than the USA due to the lack of support from the US government.
Mari and Naomi were not promoted by the United States Tennis Association because they were still amateurs. Naomi has also expressed her preference for Japanese culture over American culture.
Naomi and Mari had their father as a full-time coach thus he was not being paid. Their mother took full responsibility for financial issues and took great care of the three.
Leonard Francois Personal Life
The celebrity is married to Tamaki Osaka, a Japanese woman he met back in college in the early 1990s. This was around the time when Japan allowed its first wave of foreigners into the country.
They met in Sapporo, Hokkaido’s capital. By then, Francois was in college in New York, while Tamaki was still in high school.
Their relationship started when interracial relationships were not allowed in Japan. As a result, Leonard and Tamaki had to keep their connection hidden from the public eye, including Tamaki’s own family.
When they finally revealed their relationship to Tamaki’s father, he accused her of tarnishing their family name.
Nonetheless, they still held on to each other and secretly got married and had a family.
Leonard Francois and Tamaki Osaka welcomed their daughters, Mari and Naomi, who were born 18 months apart.
Tamaki’s family planned to make their daughter separate from her husband, and she was not allowed to reunite with Leonard Francois.
She returned to Japan with her two daughters, and because of the distance between Naomi’s parents, the girls adopted their mother’s name, Osaka. This was as per the Japanese Family Registration Law (Koseki).
However, the girls demanded their father to live together, and later Tamaki’s family agreed.
After the reunion, they moved back to the USA, where Naomi Osaka’s father, Leonard Francois, continued training them to play tennis. The family currently lives in Japan.
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Leonard Francois Net Worth
Leonard Francois’s net worth is not known in the public forum as of yet.
This is because his entire career was spent training her daughters.
He wanted them to become good athletes and had given the entire time to them. The family was run by her mother.
However, after Naomi’s wins the tennis matches, the family does earn a lot and lives well.
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Physical Appearance
Leonard Francois is 6 feet or around 183 centimeters in height. He has a weight of around 70 kilograms or 140 pounds.
He has dark brown eyes and jet black hair. He has a strong physique. This is all you need to know about the father of the star Naomi Osaka.
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