This is no longer a rumor from well-informed people. Finally Om formalizes after 10 days of silence, the arrival of Roberto de Zerbi. Former player turned coach, having played in the Italian, Ukrainian and English leagues, and already approached by the Marseille club in 2022, the technician was monitored by several large European teams.
It’s a great catch for Olympique de Marseille. After Marcelino’s departure in the fall of 2023, Gennaro Gattuso in February 2024, then Jean-Louis Gasset, who came to replace him, at the end of May, the club was looking for a new coach. Here is what we know about Roberto De Zerbi whose arrival has just been made official on May 24, in a club press release. The hesitations of the Portuguese coach Sergio Conceiçao, present in recent weeks, having made a noise.
One of the most popular coaches in Europe
The native of Brescia is particularly sought after at the end of the season. The Italian would have even refused an offer from Manchester United, 8th in the English Premier League this season and having failed in the group stage of the Champions League at the end of 2023, to prefer the Marseille club.
And this is not the only team of international stature to eye the coach. According to the German newspaper Bild, Bayern Munich were looking to recruit him to replace Thomas Tuchel. The German team reached the semi-final of the Champions League and placed third in the Bundesliga, the equivalent of our Ligue 1 in France. The international press also suspected the English club Chelsea of being interested in Roberto De Zerbi. And 2 years previously, OM themselves had already tried to get their hands on him, to replace Jorge Sampaoli, without success.
Few competitions won
With such notoriety, one would have expected the manager to be immediately recruited upon his departure from his former club, Brighton, in the English Premier League. However, the technician left without a backup plan on May 18, 2024, and therefore found himself unemployed. He even left the South of England team without any compensation, of his own accord. The club, however, requested 13 million euros from the selection which would like to recover the Italian, a sum lowered to 6 million during negotiations with Marseille, which hoped to go down to 5 million euros.
And it is not his record of trophies that suggests the value of Roberto De Zerbi. In all, since the start of his coaching career in 2013, the man has only won two competitions, the Ukrainian Super Cup with Shakhtar Donetsk, in 2021, and the Italian Serie C Cup in 2016 .
Encouraging results
But the technician still obtained several good results with the teams he supervised. He began by taking care of a small Italian amateur team, US Darfo Boario, in Lombardy. Roberto De Zerbi then moved to another Italian club, in Serie C, before signing with Palermo in 2016, and making his debut in Serie A, which brings together the best selections in Italian football. He then joined Benevento Calcio in 2017, then Sassuolo in 2018, with whom he remained for 3 seasons.
Finally, in 2021, he left with Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, which he had to leave the following year with the Russian invasion and the stopping of official matches, then joined the English Brighton in 2022, which he qualified for the European Cup. It is also on this occasion that the technician discovers the atmosphere of the Vélodrome, when the English club he supervises faces OM in the Europa League, in October 2023.
A less glorious playing career
Although Roberto De Zerbi has built a good reputation as a coach, he was less successful during his first career as a professional player. Trained in the prestigious Italian club AC Milan, with whom he did not play any matches, he officially debuted as a midfielder in 1997. It was not until 1998, however, that he was able to set foot on the pitch, with the Calcio Monza team, for which he did not score a goal in 11 matches.
His career continued in several Italian clubs, then in 2010 he joined CFR Cluj, in Romania, before returning to Italy in 2013 and ending his playing career the same year. At the same time as the championship, he was selected for the Italian national under-20 team between 1998 and 1999, and scored 2 goals in 4 matches.
