Legend of OM after having been the scorer of the Bernard Tapie era, Jean-Pierre Papin obviously has a place of choice in
The 50 best OM playersa book written by Fabrice Lamperti, journalist from Provencepublished last June by Editions Scotty. In 1986, the “boss” of the Marseille club snatched the striker who had left for FC Bruges and who was to join AS Monaco. After a difficult start, “JPP” became the team’s incredible scorer. He was champion of France three times and was top scorer in D1 five years in a row!
Papin therefore did not win the OM Champions League against AC Milan (1-0), on May 26, 1993 in Munich on Basile Boli’s famous headbutt. The Ballon d’Or 91 even played in the opposing camp, with the Rossoneri, and was launched in the 58th minute of the game against his former teammates. In vain. It was in 1991 that Jean-Pierre Papin had the opportunity to offer the very first C1 to Olympique de Marseille and to French football. Bernard Tapie’s club, already with Raymond Goethals on the bench, came up against Red Star Belgrade in the final of the Champion Clubs’ Cup (0-0) and lost on penalties (5-3) . The tears of Bari.
Papin victim of a parasite before the final
Papin was then at the zenith of his career that season, with a hat-trick against Dinamo Tirana in the first round of the C1, Marseille’s goal in the quarter-final first leg at Milan (1-1), and one of the goals in half to go to the den of Spartak Moscow (1-3). It was probably the best OM of the time, with Abedi Pelé and Chris Waddle as magical wingers. Captain Papin was unable to prepare properly for the final. He suffered from toxoplasmosis, a benign parasitic infection that affected his vision for a short time. This is what we discover in
The 50 best OM players.
For the record, only four days after this terrible disillusionment, “JPP” announced on TF1 his departure for Italy, where a more comfortable salary awaited him. But Tapie, furious, manages to convince his star scorer to stay. The native of Boulogne-sur-Mer had a last XXL season with the Ciel et Blanc, striking 38 times with OM and 9 times with the France team, receiving the Ballon d’Or during the season. With 182 goals in 275 matches, Papin is the second top scorer in OM history behind Gunnar Andersson (194 goals).
