Defender of Manchester United from 1999 to 2008 then from Arsenal until 2010, Mikaël Silvestre welcomes former players from the Premier League in a podcast for beIN Sports named Tales, tears & trophies. After Joe Hart, Ashley Cole, Joe Cole or Luis Garcia, the former French international receives Marcel Desailly, his ex-teammate and captain of the French team, with whom he won the Confederations Cup in 2001 and 2003 (even if “The Rock”, amused, had forgotten that Silvestre was in the Blues group during these two titles).
Legend of French football, he who formed the iconic central hinge of the world champions 98 and winners of Euro 2000 with Laurent Blanc, Desailly returns with Silvestre on his superb club career. A native of Ghana, he settled young in Nantes with his mother and stepfather (who became his adoptive father and who gave him the name of Marcel Desailly Junior) and was trained in the Canaries. At 23, he was recruited by Bernard Tapie's OM to join his childhood friend Didier Deschamps and won the Champions League at the end of his one and only season with the Phocaeans.
“It was just incredible, I remember having the choice to go to Marseille or Monte-Carlo (AS Monaco), my family said to me: 'Go to Monte-Carlo, the money is there, you are sure to be paid 'but I knew I had to go to Marseille for adrenaline and everything that was going there, that's why I chose Marseille. It was the worst generation, Papin had gone, Chris Waddle and Carlos Mozer too. At the start of the season, we weren't sure we could do it, so getting there, it was very strong, incredible. Doing it in Marseille, you know how it is in the city, joy, spectacle, we faced the best team of all time, AC Milan! »»says Desailly.
Desailly best environment in the world!
Marcel Desailly has just joined the Rossoneri and again raised the cup with the big ears the year after. Which left him an incredible memory: “The first was great, in your country, it was unexpected, 1-0, it's special, very special. I'm young, I'm not in the best team, so that was good. After, in Milan, we were AC Milan, it was against another large team, FC Barcelona. The impression was quite similar, except that I was the man of the match and I scored the fourth goal of the match, there was a certain pride, something more, I said to myself: 'Wow, Marcel, you are one of the best fields in Europe, the world, the universe! '
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Central defender (in Nantes, OM and in the French team), Desailly was replaced by defensive by Fabio Capello in Milan and then formed a monstrous midfield with Demetrio Albertini. During the 1994 final, the Barça de Johan Cruyff, the best team of the old continent at the time, took the water in the duels. Daniele Massaro scored a double in the first period, then Dejan Savicevic and Marcel Desailly killed the suspense before the time of play. After five years in Lombardy, the native of Accra, free of any contract, opted for England by signing in Chelsea to find his post of central defender.
