The Ligue 1 match between Stade Rennais and Olympique de Marseille on Saturday evening will inevitably be special for Jorge Sampaoli, who has fond memories of his time at the Vélodrome.
For the first time since his departure from Marseille in 2022, Jorge Sampaoli will meet the Marseille club again, but on the bench opposite with Stade Rennais. Back in France for a few weeks, after continuing his career at Sevilla FC and Flamengo, the Argentine coach left an indelible mark at the Vélodrome. Quite simply because he remains the last coach to have qualified OM in the Champions League, it was at the end of a completely crazy 2021-2022 season during which his team had ignited the Marseille supporters. However, and while he had the opportunity to compete in the C1 with Marseille, Sampaoli slammed the door during the summer, the fault of a transfer window considered not ambitious enough for his taste. Despite this departure in Bielsa fashion, his example, Sampaoli of course left his mark on Pablo Longoria, who would have liked to keep the Argentinian longer. But it is without regrets on both sides, knowing that OM is now coached by Roberto De Zerbi, one of the best coaches in Europe, that Rennes and Marseille will face each other in a special match for Sampaoli, who keeps a little nostalgia for his time at OM.
“OM is an old love”
“For me, OM is an old love, a place where I was loved very much, which I loved very much. Afterwards, it will be my opponent and we will do everything to win, even if OM is one of the best teams in the championship, a team which has been very well organized since the start of the season and which has ambitions. What if I regret my choice to leave? It is too late to have regrets, I chose to leave because the club had made certain contractual decisions with which I did not necessarily agree and out of respect for the president, I opted for a step aside »explained, in the columns of L’Équipe, the Argentine coach, who perfectly matched the Marseille DNA, perhaps more than that of Rennes which he currently manages. But football is full of surprises and Sampaoli will do everything to beat his former club in order to give his SRFC some breathing room in the fight for survival.
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