Having remained without playing for many months, Fabien Barthez nonetheless made a brilliant return to Olympique de Marseille twenty years ago.
Fabien Barthez had left Marseille through the back door, almost ten years earlier, refusing to extend with OM while the club was administratively maintained in D2. Having recently become international, he preferred to join Monaco, where he would win his two French championship titles. His return to Ciel et Blanc, just twenty years ago, was much more successful.
Recruited in the summer of 2000 by Manchester United to succeed Peter Schmeichel, iconic goalkeeper of the Red Devils, Fabien Barthez nevertheless came out of several particularly complicated months at MU when he arrived in Marseille. Author of serial blunders and designated primarily responsible for the elimination of the Mancuniens in the Champions League against Real Madrid in the spring of 2003, the Toulouse native lost his starting place, Sir Alex Ferguson preferring Tim Howard, and is even sometimes excluded from the band.
The situation has become untenable for the French international and OM, who must deal with the injury of Cédric Carasso, intends to take advantage of the windfall. So much so that the Olympian club is asking FIFA to allow him to play from December 2023. He will ultimately have to wait until January and the first days of the winter transfer window but the world champion is not hanging around to highlight himself.
A royal penalty shootout
From his first match, a 32e in the Coupe de France final against Strasbourg, “Fabulous Fab” indeed capsized the Vélodrome. Little solicited, Fabien Barthez nevertheless saw Mamadou Niang, then Alsatian, respond to Johnny Ecker’s opening score. The outcome of the match will be decided by penalties. An exercise that inspires the Olympian goalkeeper. First on the line as evidenced by his two stops on attempts by Farnerud then Niang. But the former Monegasque is determined to make this reunion with the Vel’ unforgettable and it is he who advances against Richard Dutruel to validate the qualification of the Ciel et Blanc. “ Penalties are not hard for the goalkeeper, they are hard for the shooter. he explained after the match. When there is a goal, it’s normal, when the goalkeeper saves, it’s fantastic. What was hard for me was these last few months, because I found myself in a situation that I had never experienced; I had always been number one. With age, when you are a father, you put things into perspective.»
He will have to put things into perspective when the rest of the adventure was less glorious. A year later, he hit the headlines by spitting on the referee during a friendly match against WAC Casablanca, receiving a six-month suspension.
