Olympique de Marseille announced an agreement in principle with the Italian coach on Monday.
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OM finally has its new coach. After several days of waiting, when his arrival was no longer in doubt internally, Roberto De Zerbi and the Marseille club announced an agreement in principle on Monday June 24. While waiting to settle the final administrative details, the Italian coach and his staff had already set to work, drawing the outlines of the Marseille squad and the summer preparation.
Washed out by a season which saw three coaches – Marcelino, Gennaro Gattuso then Jean-Louis Gasset –, a disappointing eighth place and no qualification for the European Cup (a first in five years), Olympique de Marseille leaves (again ) on new bases with the arrival of the Italian coach for three seasons. De Zerbi decided to leave Brighton in mid-May. A recognized technician, despite his lack of major title.
Trained at AC Milan, for which he never played, Roberto De Zerbi did not leave his mark on football with his record as a player. In all, the Italian accumulated around forty matches with Naples between 2006 and 2010, two seasons on the Romanian side at CFR Cluj (2010-2012), after having completed stints from Serie D to Serie A, and four selections under the Italian jersey in the under-20s. It was finally in 2013, at the age of 34, that he retired. Not for long since he immediately became the coach of Darfo Boario, in Serie D. It was not until September 2016 and his appointment to Palermo that Roberto De Zerbi found himself on the bench of an elite club.
A builder is what stands out most in the adjectives used to define the native of Brescia. From Sassuolo to Shakhtar to Brighton, every team he has coached has been praised for their ability to retain possession effectively and constructively. Roberto De Zerbi is obsessed with controlling the ball, as was the former OM coach, Jorge Sampaoli: “I want my team to have the ball, to control the game, to put high-quality players in the best position to play football“, he detailed to RMC in July 2021.
This is one of the things that pleased the Marseille leaders, in particular Pablo Longoria who led this file, according to our information. The president of OM already wanted him to come to the Old Port in the summer of 2022, but ultimately preferred Igor Tudor, notably for financial reasons.
Maxime Lopez, former OM midfielder, knew Roberto De Zerbi well at Sassuolo. “Un Guardiola bis”, this is how he described him in the show Le Club des 5 in March 2023: “His way of loving football was exactly mine. […] Until he gets what he wants, he won’t stop. His sessions lasted 2.5 hours. […] On Sunday, when we arrived on match days, it was natural. We worked so well during the week that we were ready for the weekend.“
And with results: under his orders, Sassuolo achieved two consecutive eighth places in the Italian championship. This will be followed by a sixth place for Brighton in the Premier League, the highest ranking the club has ever achieved, as well as a first qualification for the Europa League. Placed in the… OM group, the Seagulls finished first before being eliminated in the round of 16 of the competition by AS Roma. The opportunity for De Zerbi to discover the charms of the Vélodrome, which weighed in the balance a few months later.
Esthete of possession, but also of the pleasure of playing, this is how Roberto De Zerbi defines himself: “I don’t want to do this job if I don’t have fun. I was looking for that feeling when I was a player, and it’s the same now that I’m a coach“, he insisted to RMC.
“I like my freedom, I look for places where I can work freely and be myself.”
Roberto DeZerbiat RMC Sport
In the balance to train the Phocaeans There was also the Portuguese Sergio Conceiçao. The Italian is not a plan B, but faced with the indecision of the former FC Nantes coach, the enthusiasm of Roberto De Zerbi tipped the scales in his favor in the eyes of the Marseille leaders. Especially since, very popular in England, the tactician seemed inaccessible, on a sporting and financial level, a few months ago.
If Roberto De Zerbi had a release clause in his contract at Brighton, Olympique de Marseille must now negotiate compensation of several million euros with the English club to achieve this nice move and afford the one who has always been clear about the type of club he wanted to coach: “I’m not looking for a bench that will make me win some trophy, I’m not looking for a bench that will make me win millions of euros or that has a prestigious name just to have the pleasure of saying that it’s a name prestigious. I want to work with my ideas and with my personality.“What the McCourt version of OM has always allowed to happen.