Fabien Barthez is a legend of French football. He is not only the goalkeeper of the Blues, world champions of 98 and winners of Euro 2000 (as well as unfortunate finalists of the 2006 World Cup) but also the young goalkeeper of OM, forever the first French club to win the Ligue des champions in 1993. “The Divine Bald” logically appears logically in The 50 best OM players, a book written by the journalist of Provence Fabrice Lamperti and recently published by Editions Scotty.
A native of Ariège and trained at Toulouse FC under the leadership of Elie Baup, Barthez started in Division 1 with the Violets during the 91-92 season. Raymond Goethals returns determined from a trip to Haute-Garonne and calls for the recruitment of this carefree left-hander who still has his hair. The international hopeful agrees to join a team led by Pascal Olmeta, the charismatic goalkeeper of the Marseillais defeated in the final of the 1991 Champion Clubs’ Cup against Red Star Belgrade.
Bernard Tapie sends Barthez back to the bench
At 21, Barthez was launched during the first preliminary round of C1 against the Northern Irish of Glentoran, in September 1992. He continued in D1 and made a surprising hook on Jürgen Klinsmann during a 1-0 victory against AS Monaco, on a goal from Didier Deschamps. But the native of Lavelanet cannot do anything about the two goals conceded against Glasgow Rangers (2-2), during the first meeting of the LDC group stage, on November 25. Bernard Tapie then took the radical decision to reinstall Olmeta as number 1, spreading the information that Barthez was injured. Except that the Corsican fractures his fibula in training!
Barthez thus retained his place in the Olympian cages and continued his good performances until the coronation in Munich with a headbutt from Basile Boli. Like a fish in water in the Marseille microcosm, Barthez even agrees to stay at OM in D2 after administrative relegation due to the OM-VA affair. Then, after five seasons at AS Monaco and a mixed stint at Manchester United, Barthez returned to the Phocaeans in 2004 to take the Marseillais to the UEFA Cup final with the phenomenal Didier Drogba.
