To pay tribute to the former president of OM, a statue of Bernard Tapie, carried by several Marseille players during the celebrations of the European champion title in 1993, must be inaugurated in front of the Vélodrome in a few months. On his social networks, the sculptor shared first images of the result.
The “Boss” forever in the memories of OM fans. More than three years after the death of Bernard Tapie, a statue bearing the likeness of the former president of the Marseille club will be inaugurated on the square in front of the Vélodrome. This sculpture will reproduce a moment of life from the celebrations which followed the victory in the Champions League on May 26, 1993. The next day, during the party on the Vélodrome lawn, Bernard Tapie held up the 1993 Champions League trophy while being worn in triumph by six emblematic OM players: Fabien Barthez, Basile Boli, Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps, Éric Di Meco and Franck Sauzée.
The artist shared first images of the rendering
The exact date of its inauguration is not yet known. “Somewhere between April, if we can have a good match, or May 26 (the anniversary of the Champions League coronation, Editor's note)”, confided Laurent Tapie, son of Bernard, at the microphone of BFM Marseille Provence this Tuesday November 19. As reported by RMC Sport, the imposing statue is already ready. But Laurent Tapie confirmed that Marseille town hall was to carry out work to strengthen and develop the Vélodrome esplanade before scheduling an inauguration date in the spring.
A summary version, to visualize the work in 3D, has already been widely distributed. And while waiting to see the final rendering of the statue, its sculptor, Joël Vergne, shared images of the progress of his work. On his social networks, the artist notably revealed the busts of Marcel Desailly, Basile Boli, Éric Di Meco and Franck Sauzée, before and/or after casting in bronze in the foundry. We'll let you discover the result.
Laurent Tapie “not totally satisfied” at the moment
As he confided on BFM Marseille Provence, Laurent Tapie has closely followed the work of sculptor Joël Vergne since the start of the project: “I validated each of the characters one after the other, the last character is my father on this one I am still much more careful than for the others and I am not completely satisfied when we talk about the representation of the face, but the sculptor is getting closer. son of Bernard Tapie.
According to Laurent Tapie, the monument cost a little less than 300,000 euros. Since the creation of the “Forever the first” association, 3,000 supporters have made donations as well as six partner companies, “among which there will obviously be the Olympique de Marseille”. The names of the 2000 biggest donors will appear on the stele. And will be forever associated with this piece of OM history.
