Several legends have shone at the Stade Gaston Gérard in Dijon. Bob Marley, for a concert in 1980. Pole vaulter Sergei Bubka, who improved his world record in June 1992. Julio Tavares – in the “Reds” jersey between 2012 and 2020. And then, exactly 35 years ago , on February 11, 1987, other players who have become legendary in the history of football. That day – a Wednesday – Jean-Pierre Papin’s Olympique de Marseille faced Ajax Amsterdam for a friendly match by Frank Rijkaard. With Johan Cruyff on the Dutch bench, as coach. A forgotten match, of which very few traces remain.
“The red tornado in the mouth, it went in all directions”
A mention of the match in an issue of “Onze Mondial” in February 1987. A photo on social media. And that’s about it. Difficult to know exactly the composition of the teams that evening. We must therefore rely on the memories of François Brisson (also a PSG, Lens or LOSC player in the 70s-80s-90s), who played this match in the jersey of OM.
The anthology of talents will put stars in the eyes of every football fan born before 1980. Papin, Giresse, Forster, Domergue, Bell, Laurey, Passi are trained by Gérard Banide on the OM side, with Michel Hidalgo as manager. According to François Brisson, no Marco Van Basten on the Ajax side. Hurt? Preserved? On the other hand, are present Aron Winter, Frank Rijkaard, Dennis Bergkamp, Danny Blind, the brothers Richard and Rob Witschge, Jan Wouters or Frank Verlaat (passed by the AJA). With Cruyff, triple golden ball, for one of his first seasons as a coach.
“We had a broth the first half hour, but a broth…! It was running in all directions, the ball was going a hundred miles an hour, the guys were sprinting everywhere, old-fashioned, the red tornado in the mouth, it was going all over the place. They had eaten us, they had walked on us”recalls François Brisson. OM then succeeded in reversing the trend : “They had lowered their foot, we came back. Big second half, I had scored, I had played the whole match. Final score 3-3, but with the chances to win the match”.
A match that keeps all its promises, between Ajax, which won the Coupe des Coupes at the end of the 1986-1987 season against FC Lokomotive Leipzig, and OM, which finally finished second in D1 behind Girondins de Bordeaux. Subsequently, the two teams gather around a buffet organized in Dijon – and François Brisson poses with Johan Cruyff, a sofa in his hand.
“Promote football in Dijon”
“We had a long break in the middle of the season. That’s why we had these friendlies – we played Bayern Munich in Switzerland 3-4 days later, says François Brisson, OM player at the time. These were conventions taken by the leaders of Marseilles, it was the first year of Tapie. It was a preparation match for the second half of the season.”.
But then why play this match at the Sports Park? In the memoirs of District members, volunteers, former presidents, few have a precise memory. “A gala match”organized for “to promote football in Dijon”, still remembers Pierre Buonocore, a connoisseur of Dijon football, as a former player, former coach of Saint-Apollinaire, and current president of the DFCO Association. That year, at the end of the season, the Cercle Dijonnais managed for the first time in its history to climb to D2. And with this in mind, we would like a little more filled stands at Gaston Gérard.
35 years later, without really knowing the precise influence of this match, this “promotion of football” seems to have worked. A professional team for almost 20 years, which played six years in Ligue 1. The atmosphere is not always boiling, but thousands of people come to the Stade Gaston Gérard on weekends, even in Ligue 2. So thank you Johan Cruyff , thank you OM. Hoping that the DFCO has desires for “total football”, and sets up the “red tornado” dear to François Brisson, for his next match against Pau, Saturday February 12, 2022.
– Alain Losset / Facebook