Pablo Gomez and Luis Miguel Pascual
Marseilles (France), 25 Feb. In two years at the head of Olympique de Marseille, the Spaniard Pablo Longoria has managed to restore the image of a club accustomed to turbulence on the ground and in the offices.
At 36, this football enthusiast born in Oviedo has reached the highest position in a club accustomed, in recent decades, to bosses leaving the reins in the hands of an executive without capital in the entity.
This is what the American billionaire Frank McCourt did on February 26, 2021 when, in the midst of a results crisis and a divorce from the passionate fans of the Mediterranean city, he replaced Jacques-Henri Eyraud to induct Longoria, who until then was its sporting director and that he became the youngest president of the century-old club since 1909.
“If you give me an afternoon, I will think about it and analyze everything, because I never thought this moment could come,” Longoria said at the time, according to what he confessed exclusively for the podcast. “Monsieur Le Président”, a production of the Agencia EFE for Podium Podcast, which is available on all platforms and which retraces in five episodes the entire personal and professional career of the maximum leader of the Marseille club.
The Spaniard, who had passed through the offices of Newcastle, Atalanta, Recreativo de Huelva, Sassuolo, Juventus de Turin and Valencia, sat in an armchair where iconic names like Bernard Tapie, who presided and led the club in his most glorious early years. And also the darkest in a club accustomed to extremes.
The responsibility was very high for a man who, until then, had been a scout, transfer manager or sporting director, but who had never had full responsibility for a club under his baton.
“At the beginning, I recommended him to continue in sports management, that’s what makes him perfect. But he was right to accept. He shows that he is capable. It’s surprising because he doesn’t ‘had never done before. It’s not so surprising if you know him,” current Barcelona football director Mateu Alemany, with whom he coincided with in Valencia, underlines on the podcast.
In two years, the Marseille that Longoria has forged resembles the team which since 1993 is the only Frenchman to have won the Champions League, all in the shadow of the all-powerful Paris Saint-Germain, which benefits from all the financial power of Taste.
His first decision was to bench Argentinian Jorge Sampaoli, who in half a season led the team to fifth place, before winning second place the following season and returning to the Champions League.
Longoria had to deal with the Argentinian’s abrupt departure before starting this season and replaced him with Croatian Igor Tudor, who has just signed the club’s best first round so far this century, which keeps him second of the table five points ahead. PSG, which they eliminated in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France.
The Spanish president of Olympique de Marseille will celebrate his second birthday by sitting in the box this Sunday in the “classic” of French football again against the main rival, PSG, on whom he can put pressure in the standings in a difficult time.
“Assuming a position such as the presidency of the Olympic requires a lot of courage and Pablo did not hesitate for a second,” Pedro Iriondo, director of strategy for the club, one of his squires with Javier Ribalta, told the podcast. , director of football.
“I told him that the proposal to be president showed him that they trusted him and that they had known him in a short time to entrust him with such a responsibility”, says the second in “Monsieur Le Président”, whose fifth and final episode will be released this Sunday.
Marseille lives by and for Olympique and Longoria quickly understood the social dimension of the most popular club in France. “It’s magical and unique. You can’t be president of Olympique de Marseille without having passion. It’s the most passionate club in Europe. Living in the city is bound to please you,” admits he.
These two years were “a period of very important individual growth” and “forced march adaptation”.
Longoria, who believed a year ago that his term as president of Olympique de Marseille would not continue in this position or as sporting director of any other club, is now more open and does not exclude anything.
“I focus on the best possible construction of a project and the best professional development to be able to give everything to this club,” he says.
A trophy is missing to galvanize the work of Longoria, highly respected by the locker room, applauded by the press and also praised by the sulphurous stands of the Vélodrome. ECE
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