Benatia shows ambition against a less dominant PSG

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·3 December 2025

Benatia shows ambition against a less dominant PSG

Medhi Benatia, sporting director of Olympique de Marseille, answered numerous questions from RMC Sport. It was an opportunity to discuss the possible title race, especially as Paris Saint-Germain has shown some weaknesses.

Benatia: "The slightly ambitious teams can tell themselves there’s something to be done"

“It’s not arrogance, but when you are Olympique de Marseille, you want to do a little better each year than the previous one. Last year, we finished second, quite a few points behind PSG. This season, the goal is to get as close as possible and be at the very top. When I see this Paris Saint-Germain, when I look at their recent matches, they pick up quite a few points at the end of games, so the slightly ambitious teams can tell themselves there’s something to be done, and when they came to us, we showed that we can have a game plan to cause them problems. And the truth is that PSG started out 15 years ago, built a team with resources different from ours, so of course it’s difficult. Does it depend on them? I don’t know. In any case, our goal is to play to reach the top.”

It’s good to see this rival, and great historic French club, wanting to do better and move forward. It would be sad to focus on a season without winning a title. We want to see that other French clubs are working well in order to compete with PSG.

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However, Benatia’s logic can be challenged. Because it’s clear that Paris is a bit less strong at the start of this season, both collectively and individually. That’s logical, given the fatigue. But the Parisians still manage to pick up points and are ahead of OM (29 points), in second place (30 points) behind Lens (31 points). It’s a bit of a shame not to have overtaken them during this period of weakness, which is likely to diminish as the weeks go by.

But we hope for a great battle, with a Lens side in top form as well. And maybe other clubs, at least in the years to come.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.