Winner of the Champions League with Olympique de Marseille, five -time French champion and undefeated in the French team in 23 selections, Eric Di Meco is one of the biggest left in the history of French football. A career that was difficult for him to imagine when he was a left winger in the sky and white in the early 80s, even if some nicknamed him little Cruyff.
But that was without counting on Arsène Wenger, then coach of AS Nancy-Lorraine. Loaned to the ASNL while he struggles to win on OM, Eric Di Meco is installed in the left -back post by the Alsatian technician. A conversion that will transform the native of Avignon. Also, at the time of appointing the best coach he had during his career, it was towards Arsène Wenger that he turned rather than to Raymond Goethals, Aimé Jacquet or Michel Platini.
“He reposition me back left, when I was a winger. I would never have made this career without this change. By staying in front, I would have been a little D2 player, no more. He was really ahead of his time, he made me meet a dietician, for example. He was often with gardeners for the state of the lawn. In the 80s, all of this was not yet done ”, he thus entrusted in the columns of
Nice morning.
Eric Di Meco marked by Bernard Tapie
And the 1993 European champion to also have a thought for
“GĂ©rard Gili, my coach at the OM training center, with whom we make the double championship cup in season 88-89”. But at OM, if a man impressed him, it is much more Bernard Tapie than the different coaches who succeeded each other on the Marseille bench.
“I had a lot of chance of rubbing shoulders with this man on a daily basis for six years. At the table, he did not eat with the coaches, but with the players. And he went from one to the other, he saved on your plate, it was something …, he said about it. In fact, he ate his brain, he was a guru, he got into your head and he was shooting 120% of everyone. A real dingo of sports, and I think he has lived with us his best life, and we too. The period was extremely strong with the supreme title. He also told us a lot, especially in his political life. »»
