Former glory of the Olympian club, Jean-Pierre Papin is having a complicated time in Marseille. Having returned as advisor to President Longoria, JPP is nevertheless celebrating with the Ciel et Blanc reserve, currently at the top of its championship. Alas, a conflict pits him against Ali Zarrak, who arrived at the club this summer as head of the Pro 2 group this summer. “ This can’t go on any longer.” he confided in an interview with Provence. Either he leaves or I leave? It is in this spirit that I see things. »
And the former Marseille striker is all the more tempted to leave as he was threatened by strangers who told him to “get out” of Olympique de Marseille. “What you need to know is that for three weeks, I have been living with three security cars in front of my house and it is unbearable to live with,” he whispered. A situation experienced in the past by certain Olympian players. At the end of 1999, Christophe Dugarry suffered the anger of Olympian supporters, to the point of leaving the club a few weeks later.
Arriving at Olympique de Marseille in January 1998 after six very complicated months at FC Barcelona, the Bordeaux player nevertheless experienced a particularly successful season in the wake of the world champion title won with the Blues with a Cup final at stake. of UEFA and a French championship title lost to the wire against… Bordeaux. But weighed down by the surprise departure during the summer transfer window, OM experienced a crisis the following season of which the Ciel et Blanc had the secret. Consequence in particular of the humiliation experienced in Saint-Etienne with a 5-1 defeat which would provoke the immense anger of the Marseille public.
Christophe Dugarry was ready to return
Legend even has it that to escape the ire of the Olympian supporters, Christophe Dugarry had to take refuge in the trunk of his car when leaving the Commanderie two days after the setback at Geoffroy-Guichard, while fights had taken place. exploded. The situation is such that a major laundry is decided in the winter transfer window. And unsurprisingly, the former Milanese is one of the first to leave OM. Marked by this violent behavior of Marseille supporters, the international striker decided to return to Bordeaux where “It’s good to live and work.”
A few months before Euro 2000, Christophe Dugarry preferred to play it safe within a club that he knows perfectly and which did not hesitate to spend some 8 million euros to repatriate his former player. Despite the episode experienced in Marseille, the Bordeaux player will remain marked by the passion of the Olympian supporters. At the end of his career, he even tried to return to OM at all costs.
“I had done everything at the end of my career to return there. I had Jean Fernandez on the phone, he told me he was coming back to me because he was interested, but he never called me back. I had hesitated for weeks and weeks to call Mr. (Robert) Louis-Dreyfus directly to tell him that I wanted to return to OM, even if it meant playing for free,
he explained. I was at the end of my career and I simply wanted to relive the emotions of the Vélodrome stadium. But unfortunately, Jean Fernandez never called me back. »
