Mercato: Sergio Conceiçao, new priority for OM, “He appreciates the slightly volcanic side of the club”

In Marseille, a Portuguese coach could well hide another. In its quest for a successor to Jean-Louis Gasset, the Marseille club, 8th in Ligue 1 and not qualified for a European competition, had long made Lille’s Paulo Fonseca a priority.

However, the latter, while still reserving his response, clearly seems to favor AC Milan with the much more attractive prospect of competing in the Champions League next season. At OM, it is said, we had a very moderate taste of these delays and all the publicity generated by the future of the former AS Roma man. We have therefore now made up our minds while, in the process, redefining priorities.

According to our information, his compatriot Sergio Conceiçao, 49, who has been stationed in Porto for 7 years (a record) where his contract ends on June 30, would now constitute the managers’ first choice. This track is, moreover, described as “complex, but very credible” by those around the technician. “Sergio respects the identity of OM. He appreciates the slightly volcanic side of the club, quite similar to that of Porto, we are told. He continues to carefully follow the L1, a qualitative championship in his eyes. Afterwards, his avowed ambition is to conquer the Champions League in future years.”

A file somewhat blocked by the final of the Portuguese Cup

A meeting with Marseille officials, in the presence of Jorge Mendes, the coach’s agent, took place in Porto around May 14. Pablo Longoria, the president of OM, holds Conceiçao in high esteem. He appreciates his qualities as a leader of men, despite his somewhat rash character. “This is a real possibility,” we add internally within the Olympian club.

This file is, for the moment, a little blocked by the final of the Portuguese Cup scheduled for this Sunday between Porto and Sporting, already champions. “Sergio is fully focused on this match. He is currently dissecting the game of Sporting through multiple videos. He really intends to go out with his head held high with a new trophy,” we add in his inner circle. A meeting with André Villas-Boas, former Marseille coach (2019-2021), now president of FC Porto, must take place at the start of next week.

But a separation is now inevitable, Conceiçao was close to Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, the historic boss of the Dragons, beaten by AVB during the recent elections at the end of April after 42 years of reign. Conceiçao on the bench of FC Porto is, before Sunday’s final, no less than three Championships won, three Portuguese Super Cups, a League Cup and two qualifications for the quarter-finals of the C1. All thanks to a direct style of play, based on commitment and discipline, long structured around an immutable 4-4-2. He also has the advantage of speaking French.

A short but convincing visit to Nantes

In Nantes, he arrived in December 2016 at the head of a team ranked 19th. He left six months later “for personal reasons” after 12 wins, 5 draws and 6 defeats and a 7th place result, the Canaries’ best ranking in the elite since 2003-2004. In a particularly lively coaching transfer window these days, there is no shortage of suitors.

He was also on the AC Milan shortlist, but he was ultimately not selected. He should not join Chelsea either, despite the efforts of Jorge Mendes, since the Blues are more interested in Enzo Maresca, the man of Leicester’s rise to the Premier League. In this game of musical chairs, FC Porto could set its sights on this same… Maresca, .

This Wednesday Mehdi Benatia, Pablo Longoria’s advisor, however denied on the social network X, formerly Twitter, a new meeting this Tuesday, May 21 with Conceiçao. Info or intox ? The OM leaders do not intend to dawdle along the way or miss the wrong target after having consumed 4 technicians (Marcelino, Abardonado, Gattuso and Gasset) during an exercise that was chaotic to say the least.

By the end of May at the latest, they intend to have completed this file to then focus on the reconstruction of the squad where many movements are expected in both directions. The name of RC Lens coach Franck Haise also circulated. But according to our information, his work is praised but it is not part of the plans of the OM board. Habib Beye or Christophe Galtier no more.

A real interest exists, on the other hand, for the Argentinian Matias Almeyda (AEK Athens), but he is not free. The hypothesis of a 4th man, whose identity has not been filtered (Vincenzo Italiano de la Forentina?), cannot be completely ruled out. But to date, Conceiçao, mentioned at PSG in 2022 then 2023 to succeed Mauricio Pochettino then Galtier, seems in pole position, even if in this type of negotiation, it is always difficult to be peremptory. Even more so in Marseille.