Until 1984, the football event at the Olympic Games was reserved for amateur players. From 1984 to 1988, professional players were allowed to participate, but only if they had never played in the FIFA World Cup. After this new reform, the French team, led by Daniel Xuereb, will offer itself his only Olympic titlein Los Angeles.
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A recognized player in the first division
It was in 1977 that Daniel Xuereb began his career as a football player. professional football, at Olympique Lyonnais. With his training club, the French striker will play four seasons, all in the first division. After 98 matches played and 21 goals scored, he was transferred to RC Lens.
It’s in The north of France where Daniel Xuereb will spend a large part of his career. During his years in Lens, the native of Gardanne discovered the joys of the national selection. First the A team, the equivalent of the Blues reserve team, then the French first team, with whom he would only play 8 matches in his career.
Discovery of the French Olympic team
But it is above all under the colors of the French Olympic national team that he will really shine. Not qualified for the 1980 Olympic tournament in Moscow, France wants to reconnect with the summits in Los Angeles.
Especially since even if the main French players cannot compete in the Olympic competition because of the World Cup, Henri Michel, the coach, has an immense reservoir of talent. Notably Daniel Xuerebwho will be the spearhead of the Blues during this unprecedented epic in the United States.
Olympic champion in Los Angeles
In the group stage, the France team finished in first place, with a goal from the Lens player against Qatar. During the quarter-finals, Daniel Xuereb disgusted the Egyptians by scoring twice. In the semi-final, he scored the last goal of overtime against Yugoslavia (4-2). In the final, the Blues are opposed to Brazil. François Brisson opened the scoring in the 55th minute, in front of 101,000 spectators at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
If the match is close, Daniel Xuereb will, as often, carry France and score the winning goal, against Dunga, future world champion with the Seleçao. This is the one and only Olympic title for France in this event at the Olympic Games. With 5 goals scored, Daniel Xuereb is voted top scorer of the competition and achieves notoriety. After the competition, the striker will stay in Lens for two years, then he will sign for PSG.
Coach and member of an association
Despite his best individual seasons in Paris, he decided to join Montpellier with whom he won the Coupe de France, then Olympique de Marseille, where he would be champion of France in 1992. Unfortunately, he left the Marseille club the year the Champions League is won by OM. Daniel Xuereb retired in 1993, in Toulon. He will have played 497 matches for 118 goals scored, and above all a gold medal at the Olympics. A few months after hanging up his crampons, he became a coach and managed the Dignois Athletic Club for a season, then the USR Pertuis for four years.
After his retraining as a coach, Daniel Xuereb will take the initiative to create “‘OM star club’, an association of former Olympique de Marseille players who play friendly matches to provide funds to associations. At 64, he remains the symbol of the success of French football at the Olympic Games. Often asked to tell the story of this exploit, the Gardannais has been the deputy director of the sports department of the municipality of Pertuis (Vaucluse) since 2016.
