Take a sheet, draw a table with two columns: one for Steve Mandanda, the other for Brice Samba. And note the events of their lives and careers. The resemblance of the routes is edifying. The two were born less than 50 kilometers apart on either side of the Congo River, between the DRC (formerly Zaire) for Mandanda (in Kinshasa) and the Congo for Samba (in Linzolo). The duo grew up in the same neighborhood of La Madeleine in Évreux, rubbing shoulders with the same Ébroïcian club (ALM Évreux). Before each taking turns joining the Le Havre training center. Then to sign for OM.
They did not meet at Clairefontaine in the French team, but the retirement of Mandanda (combined with that of Hugo Lloris) opened the door to Samba, summoned by Didier Deschamps for the first post-2022 World Cup gathering. Before, therefore, that these two “inseparable” people do not meet again at Stade Rennais in 2025. And that Samba does not steal the place from Mandanda for his first match in Rouge et Noir against… OM, this Saturday evening.
If Mandanda, nine years older than Samba, had done everything first in their common journey, this time, the student surpasses the master, with Samba coming to seize the position of Mandanda’s number 1 guardian. Something he never achieved during their time at Olympique de Marseille.
The promise of José Anigo
It’s December 2012. It’s the truce. Then goalkeeper in National 2 in Le Havre, Brice Samba is in Paris for the holidays. He receives a call from José Anigo, sporting director of OM. Samba is 18 years old and believes a joke from someone close to him. He hangs up. After a call from his agent who lectures him and orders him to call back quickly, Samba finally talks with Anigo, who tells him: « I’m going to be clear with you, we want you now for Mandanda’s succession. We will make sure that you sign with us as quickly as possible. » For Samba, it’s a dream. OM means a lot to him and his family, fans of the club.
At the beginning of January 2013, for 400,000 euros, Samba joined Canebière for a four and a half year contract. « It’s someone I am, he then explains on RMC, about Steve Mandanda. He is one of the best European goalkeepers. I’m going to learn from him, I’m going to work and we’ll see what happens. » However, the future Lens goalkeeper is not the first targeted. « It’s nothing, rewinds Laurent Spinosi, Marseille goalkeeper coach when Samba arrives. We had to sign a goalkeeper from Istres, who was having a good season in Ligue 2: Denis Petric (Lens number 3 goalkeeper since last summer, behind Hervé Koffi and… Brice Samba, Editor’s note). We had good feedback. And then, we come across Brice Samba… He was too reminiscent of Steve, the same profile, etc. »
« Samba did not have an exemplary professional life »
The transfer is done. But the reality and the hierarchy are clear: « Steve was the monument, reframes Élie Baup, OM coach when Samba arrived. Brice knew he was unavoidable. But it wasn’t there, turned off, no. He wanted to grow up and already had personality. » Unlike Mandanda who, when he joined OM (2007), had a place to take against Cédric Carrasso, Samba is far from his elder. And above all he has a lot of work to do before claiming anything. « He had much less experience, so he couldn’t challenge him, notes Franck Passi, deputy. Brice had to adjust a little in terms of his life, invisible work. Like a young player, they do not all have the high level requirements. This is also why he played little: we are not going to say that he was not serious, but he did not have an exemplary professional life. » Laurent Spinosi tempers: “You’re barely 20 years old, you sign for OM… That’s what! But he learned quickly. Head in the stars didn’t last long. »
I don’t know if it was mad love, but they respected each other, it wasn’t bad enough
This is the time of the famous “Project Dortmund” of OM, the recruitment of young people with high potential (Mario Lemina, Giannelli Imbula, Benjamin Mendy, Florian Thauvin, etc.) to come and gain experience in contact with the captains (Steve Mandanda, Benoît Cheyrou, André Ayew, Nicolas Nkoulou, etc.). « These young people had probably been told that they were coming to play. But there were players in place at the time »recontextualizes Passi. Regularly called up for the French team, national and even European reference, quiet force of the Marseille locker room, Mandanda leaves nothing to his ambitious youngster. « But, on a daily basis, on a human level, it was a pleasure to have both, Spinosi promises. In the behavior of the two, it was magnificent. There was complicity. Steve played his role wonderfully. Brice had lots of things to learn and the memories I have are that he really listened. »
« He was ambitious, yes, extends Baup. Maybe that’s why people say there was tension. But not at all. Brice respected Steve, but that didn’t block his ambition to want to play for OM one day. » Executive of the time facing this youth that he remembers very dynamic, Mathieu Valbuena saw Samba understand in Marseille « what a big club was and what the high level was. I’m not saying he was lazy, but he had a bit of this nonchalant side. He worked. But the roles were well defined. He never claimed anything. »
The break under Bielsa
Samba waits a year and four months to have his first minutes in Ligue 1 in the Marseille jersey. Last day of the 2013-2014 season. He is thrown into the deep end to his great surprise following the unfortunate injury to Mandanda, who will be deprived of the World Cup in Brazil just behind. So, why does the legend say that the Mandanda-Samba agreement during the Marseille period was far from good? “The first year, in any case, there was nothing that could make me say that »wonders Spinosi, left in the 2014 offseason. « I don’t know if it was mad love, but they respected each other, it wasn’t bad enough », quips Passi ironically.
It was Samba himself who provided a first explanation: « Steve is injured before the World Cup when he was due to leave the club, explained Samba in Our Mondial. Bielsa arrives, I do all the preparation as a starter. Steve returns two days before the start of the championship. I was convinced that I was going to start the season. Bielsa liked me. In the end, I didn’t play. And it was very difficult for me. I felt ready. This event hurt me. » Stéphane Cassard joins Bielsa’s staff as goalkeeper coach. Today in Nice, he refutes any disagreement: « They normally rubbed shoulders at workhe analyzes. Whether they saw each other outside or not, that wasn’t my concern. They worked well together. »
-People say to me, “Steve helped you. » But Steve, he was cold, he didn’t help me. I have respect for him, but we have to be clear about that.
With, despite the passage of time, a Mandanda still as much of a boss and a Samba as still learning: « Brice, in the concentration, the approach of a match, the length of a match, his youth was felt, admits Cassard, who does not hide a certain impatience from his foal. In some sessions, he had difficulty staying focused throughout. Still, he had a big, big, big future. But, in front of him, he had a big, big, big goalkeeper. »
When Samba lets go of his resentment
In the end, for Samba, a frustration and no Ligue 1 match during this 2014-2015 season. With, as a bonus, his biggest nightmare on the pitch with OM, in the Coupe de France, against Grenoble, then in the CFA (3-3 ap, 5 tab to 4): « I had poorly prepared the meeting in my headhe said again to France Football. It was my worst week in Marseille. » A loan without playing any more in Ligue 2 in Nancy. A new white season in 2016-2017 while Mandanda left for Crystal Palace (this time, it’s Yohann Pelé who is in front of him). And therefore the choice to leave the Vélodrome for Caen in the summer of 2017. With resentment released a year later in The Team : « Steve, when I arrived at OM, I knew him and yet it was not as simple as you think. People tell me: “Steve helped you. » But Steve, he was cold, he didn’t help me. I have respect for him, but we have to be clear about that. »
Without hiding from his shortcomings at the time during an interview given to So Foot last season: « I was always helped from the age of 11 to 18, I didn’t learn to fend for myself. And suddenly, I found myself free, I logically wanted to discover things I had never known. I had the money, I was young, I played for OM, everyone knew me a little and I took advantage of that a little…” Criticisms towards Mandanda that Riffi Mandanda, brother of the French international, prefers to put aside. “Maybe he misspoke. He only said it once. Everyone made a big deal out of it… It remained a competition, a number 1, a number 2. In football, there is no: “It’s my little one, I’m looking after him. » Behind every champion, there is a number 2 with long teeth. Brice has always had fangs. If there was a problem with Steve, I think he would not have come to Rennes. »
Sampaoli, Mandanda and the violin
Yet it is there. A new page in their common history. And for Mandanda, the bitter feeling of being relegated a second time by Jorge Sampaoli. « I’m a little embarrassed to talk about this, plague Laurent Spinosi. That’s twice he’s made Steve jump… I’m a little upset about him. The guy says: “I like him, blah blah blah. » And he does it twice. We have to stop playing the violin. And again, I hold back, I don’t want to say anything stupid… » But the former OM goalkeeper coach understands Samba’s choice: « It’s not against him that I say this. He has an opportunity, he seizes it. Today, you see, he’s a good man: as a goalkeeper, a captain, when he speaks to the press… I think he has a lot of maturity. »
Today, there is not much respect for champions. I wish Steve had ended a different way. He doesn’t say it or show it, but it must be hard.
The assessment will be made in less than six months, while Mandanda is at the end of his contract in June. If he doesn’t leave Brittany first. « I find this timing of this transfer quite surprising, not very good, Valbuena slice. Stade Rennes could have waited until next summer and made another exit to Steve Mandanda. It’s the law of the game, but they’re not going to explain to me the bad results solely due to Mandanda. » « It’s cruel, concluded Riffi Mandanda. Today, there is not much respect for champions. I wish Steve had ended a different way. He doesn’t say it or show it, but it must be hard. Afterwards, it’s not at 40 that he’s going to worry. Gianluigi Buffon was in the same thinking at PSG. Steve had a twenty-year non-stop career, more than 500 matches: hats off. »
The good resolutions that Ligue 1 must make in 2025
Related News :