The images have been viewed 1000 times, the stories told 1000 times. A painful start to the match against Marco Van Basten, Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi and the stars of AC Milan, Fabien Barthez who rejects everything, Bernard Tapie in the stands with a walkie-talkie in his ear, a corner which does not is not really one, then Boli in the axis which is ahead of Frank Rijkaard for a historic goal.
Then, there is a last big scare at the entrance of Jean-Pierre Papin, passed to the enemy the previous summer, then Didier Deschamps, the captain, who finally lifts the Cup with big ears: OM and Marseille are forever the first.
“We were on top of the world. At that moment, you just want to suspend time, every second that passes, every step you can take”remembered the coach of the Blues in an interview with AFP.
He also remembered having met Michel Platini’s gaze in Munich, like a handover between the giants of French football. That evening, Deschamps, Barthez and Marcel Desailly indeed began to write their legend, which would carry them to the world title with the France team in 1998.
In the elite
Because if OM succeeded where they had failed in 1991, like Reims twice in the 1950s or Saint-Etienne in 1976 against Bayern Munich and the square posts of Glasgow, their success finally freed French football above all Selection.
In clubs, the feat unfortunately remained without a future, with only two C1 finals since, lost by Monaco against Porto in 2004 and by Paris SG against Bayern in 2020.
“When we lift the trophy, it’s a great joy but we have no perspective. Thirty years later, we know the weight of this title for French football and OM, which has undoubtedly moved into a category go”explains to AFP Jean-Philippe Durand, midfielder of the 1993 team.
“Marseille is the capital of French football. But by winning this match, we entered the history of international football. Abroad, it counts to have a Champions Cup. We are part of this elite”considers for his part Jean-Pierre Bernès, at the time right arm of Tapie.
Coming off the lawn in Munich with a fractured tibia, Jocelyn Angloma sees his part in the 1993 triumph “a victory that makes you switch elsewhere, despite the difficult things that came after”.
Cut in half
The aftermath is obviously the VA-OM corruption scandal, born a few days before May 26 and which finally precipitated the fall of Tapie, imprisoned, and brought OM to the second division. Invoking on this file his “selective memory”Deschamps “prefers to remember only the good times”. But others have suffered.
“The joy was short, because VA-OM cut us in half right behind”says Rachid Zeroual, then a young supporter and now responsible for the South Winners, one of OM’s main fan groups.
Excluded by UEFA from the next edition of the Champions League and deprived of the European Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo against Sao Paulo FC, OM will also be demoted to D2 at the end of the 1993 season. 94. It will stay there for two years, rebuild itself and then experience as many low moments as good times, without ever approaching the peak of 1993 again.
“To see OM today not playing in the C1 or not coming out of the pools is tormenting for the supporters. But football has changed, the Champions League too and the necessary means as well.explains Durand.
For Zeroual, however, “If a whole city is behind a club, with passionate management and a stadium as it should be, you can compete. Money is not everything, we see it with PSG”.
And at worst, the Marseillais, who are already forever the first, would ultimately not be sorry to also remain forever the last.
“We were on top of the world. At that time, you just want to suspend time, every second that passes, every step you can take”, recalled the coach of the Blues in an interview with the AFP.Photo GERARD JULIEN / AFP.
