Eighteen months after the end of his adventure at Olympique de Marseille, Jorge Sampaoli returned to the reasons for his sudden departure.
The coaches have only been moving to Olympique de Marseille for several years. Even when the leaders of the Marseille club would hope to see them continue at the head of Ciel et Blanc. This was the case last year for Igor Tudor, who decided to leave OM despite the good results obtained at the head of the club and the prospect of competing in the Champions League, or at least its play-offs.
A year earlier, it was Jorge Sampaoli who suddenly slammed the door of OM one month before the resumption. The Argentine technician explained it in the columns of The Team this Wednesday. For the former Chile coach, the gap was too great between his ambitions and the reality he was faced with. “ I want to win a European Cup, win titles. OM changed sporting directors (Javier Ribalta arrived in June 2022), and then I understood that it would be very difficult, that it was no longer the same project. And as I had a lot of affection and gratitude for the club, the president, the owner too, I preferred to leave. I know myself, I’m obsessive and I would have been more frustrated than happy,” he explained.
For many, Jorge Sampaoli’s ambitions were unreasonable and the names given to his leaders in view of the transfer window are the best illustration of this. According to the rumors circulating around OM, the former Sevillian dreamed of Gareth Bale, Renato Sanches or even Antoine Griezmann. “No, no, these are names… Obviously these names are tempting, but no,” he explained on this subject, adding: “I was only saying that, given the level of demands of the OM public, we had to live up to it. I didn’t want to return to the bench to be the vice-champion of PSG again, my level of motivation is not that. Playing to be second frustrates me, and maybe it’s unattainable, but I wanted to aim higher. »
