Roberto De Zerbi spent close to two seasons at Brighton & Hove Albion before leaving them back in May.
The Italian had a deal at Brighton until 2026, but they mutually agreed to terminate the contract towards the end of last season. A month later, Marseille appointed him as their new manager.
Marseille president Pablo Longoria has given a long interview to L’Equipe, where he talked about the arrival of the former Brighton manager.
The French newspaper claims the manager received a ‘huge salary’ at the Premier League side. They pointed that out to the president, before asking him how he managed to convince the 45-year-old to join the Ligue 1 side.
This is when Longoria revealed he knew in advance about De Zerbi’s decision to leave the Seagulls.
“It’s a collective effort, I don’t take all the credit. Several people contributed to the arrival of Roberto, whether Medhi [Benatia], Giovanni Rossi, whom I had known for a long time and who gave me the opportunity to become scouting manager at Sassuolo,” he said.
“It all starts from an impossible dream, in fact. One day, a friend called me and told me a scoop, a week before it hit the press: ‘Don’t say anything, but De Zerbi is in the process of terminating his contract with Brighton’.
“We talk with Medhi and decide to call him. Why not try? For several weeks, without having much chance of succeeding, we continued to maintain contact, patiently. And then, one day, he too began to position himself at OM.”
De Zerbi took Brighton to the Europa League for the first time in the club’s history. His work at The Amex saw him get linked to top clubs. L’Equipe asked the president if they had offered a ‘tailor-made’ project to the manager.
“He’s a coach with so much potential, with such a high level, that we had to find an ad hoc project with total alignment between everyone, from the owner to all the managers. What Roberto asked of us was precisely this alignment. No, he didn’t demand that everything be done for him. He even wanted to explain his project, his vision, to Frank [McCourt, Marseille owner],” Longoria explained
Marseille are currently third in the table, trailing league leaders AS Monaco by five points.
