Olympique de Marseille and a little bit of history ahead of Newcastle United in Champions League | OneFootball

Olympique de Marseille, a descendant of the Football Club de Marseille, which was created two years earlier, was founded on 31 August 1899.

Since 1937 OM has played at the Stade Velodrome, the place where former Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer scored against Tunisia on a sultry afternoon in France ‘98.

OM has nine Ligue 1 titles to its name, has won the Coupe de France on ten occasions, and both the Coupe de la Ligue and the Trophee des Champions three times. OM has also one UEFA Champions League title, the only French side to have won the European Cup until Paris St Germain won last season’s competition. More on that ‘success’ later……..

French football turned professional in 1932, so despite some earlier success, OM’s first Ligue 1 triumph didn’t officially arrive until the 1937 season, when they beat Sochaux to the title on goal difference.

Although OM won the coupe de France in 1938 and again in 1942, before securing another Ligue 1 title in 1948, the club struggled during the 1950s and were relegated for the first time in 1959.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s under Marcel Leclerc’s presidency, OM dominated French football. After returning to the First division in 1966, they went on to win the Coupe de France in 1969, then Ligue 1 in 1971 before securing the league and cup double the following season. Being champions of France meant participation in the European Cup, but OM were knocked out by the team that won the competition in 1972, Johan Cruyff’s Ajax, before succumbing to beaten finalists Juventus in 1973. This brief period of success was not to last however, Leclerc was forced to leave the club after a dispute with Ligue 1 over fielding more than the regulation number of foreign players.

In April 1986 the businessman turned politician, Bernard Tapie, became club president and proceeded to assemble the greatest football team seen in France up to that point, with high profile signings such as Alain Giresse, Jean-Pierre Papin, Jean Tigana, Didier Deschamps, Basile Boli, Marcel Desailly, and Fabien Barthez. It was during this era that former Newcastle United player Chris Waddle signed for OM, making 107 appearances over three eventful seasons between 1989 and 1992.

With Waddle in the team, OM won three league titles (they actually won four in a row having been crowned champions the season before Waddle’s arrival). The club also reached the European Cup final for the first time in 1991, losing on penalties to Red Star Belgrade.

After Waddle had returned to England to ply his trade at Hillsborough with Sheffield Wednesday, OM avenged that defeat to the Yugoslavs by winning the new format Champions League in 1993. After edging out Glasgow Rangers in the group stage, the club qualified for the final and Basile Boli scored the only goal of a tight match against AC Milan in Munich’s Olympic Stadium.

OM’s Ligue 1 and European Cup double came at a significant cost however, as the club became embroiled in financial irregularities and a match-fixing scandal, suffering an enforced relegation to the second division. This scandal, called l’affaire VA-OM, involved two Valenciennes players accepting bribes to underperform and effectively forfeit their match against OM ahead of the final against Milan. The Valenciennes match was won 1-0 by OM and it helped them secure another Ligue 1 title.

Tapie was complicit, asking one of his players to act as a conduit to bribe three Valenciennes players, one of whom declined the invitation, later bringing the matter to the attention of a local magistrate. Subsequently, OM were stripped of their Ligue 1 title and the right to defend the Champions League (as well as participate in the 1993 European Super Cup and the 1993 Intercontinental Cup).

Although OM returned to the top flight in 1996, the closest they got to another trophy was when they reached the UEFA Cup Final in 2004, but lost to newly crowned Spanish champions Valencia. Fans of Newcastle United will recall Didier Drogba breaking our hearts in the second leg of the semi-final. After drawing a blank at SJP, and with the return leg on the Cote d’Azur set up nicely, it was a case of what might have been, injuries and a poor performance seeing OM through to the final, with Drogba scoring in the 18th and 82nd minutes in what until Tuesday evening represents the only competitive fixture between the two sides.

Fast forward a few years and with Didier Deschamps at the helm, OM won their last major honours. In 2010, they won the Coupe de la Ligue Final beating Bordeaux 3–1 at the Stade de France, their first major title since their tainted Champions League triumph 17 years earlier. Two months later, OM won their first league championship for 18 years and although they won a treble of Coupe de la Ligues by retaining the trophy in 2011 and 2102, that was OM’s most recent success, with the last decade and a bit representing another barren spell for the club.

OM are currently managed by former Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi who in his time at the Amex saw his side win, lose and draw against Newcastle United, that solitary defeat coming on a famous night in May 2023, when Callum Wilson and Bruno Guimaraes scored late on at the Gallowgate End in a match that NUFC won 4-1 and all but qualified for the Champions League.

On Friday evening, OM thrashed Nice 5-1 away from home, to temporarily top Ligue 1, and with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mason Greenwood both getting on the scoresheet, possess some quality up top. In Benjamin Pavard, capped 55 times by the French national side and currently on loan from Inter Milan, OM possess a quality centre half who is paired with the Argentine, Leonardo Balerdi, whilst the left back, Emerson is another familiar face having played in the Premier League for both West Ham and Chelsea.

Whilst OM have lost three of their Champions League fixtures this season, away at Real Madrid and Sporting Lisbon and at home to Atalanta, make no mistake, those were tough fixtures.