“It was excess, madness”, remembers Didier Deschamps

“The days that followed our return to Marseille, it was excess, madness that we were able to share with all the supporters” of OM, remembers Friday May 26 on France Bleu Provence Didier Deschamps, thirty years after the European coronation of the Marseille club of which he was then captain. On May 26, 1993, OM beat AC Milan 1-0 and won the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, thus becoming the first and only French club to climb to the top of Europe. The captain at the time, now coach of the Blues, Didier Deschamps ensures that at that time, he “does not realize” of the magnitude of this victory and is becoming more aware of it thirty years later. “It marks the history of a club (…) Marseille will forever remain the first”he greets.

The role of Bernard Tapie as “an important driver of the group and the club”

Didier Deschamps also pays tribute to the former president of Olympique de Marseille, Bernard Tapie who died on October 3, 2021. The coach of the French football team salutes the “ability [de Bernard Tapie] to motivate, to convince as well as his “strong minded”. “He intervened often”, “he knew how to use the right words”, recalls Didier Deschamps. He recalls that the objective of Bernard Tapie “when he took on Marseille, it was to win the Champions League”. He claims that the former OM boss was “an important engine of the group and the club”. He “represents a victorious OM”.

For all these reasons, does Bernard Tapie deserve a statue in his honor, as his son Laurent Tapie demands? “Yes, like all those who were present”answers Didier Deschamps timidly, who specifies that on “this sensitive subject”it is not he who has “the responsibility of saying yes and it must be done like that. But obviously he has a very, very important place in the life and history of OM”he adds.