Olympique de Marseille - History - Return To Success

Return To Success

Marseille returned to the top flight in 1996 with backing from Adidas's owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus. He chose Rolland Courbis as coach, signed Fabrizio Ravanelli, Laurent Blanc, and Andreas Köpke, and Marseille finished 11th for his return. For the 1998–99 season, the team celebrated their centenary and built a team of stars: Robert Pirès, Florian Maurice, and Christophe Dugarry, culminating in a second place finish in the French championship, behind Bordeaux and an appearance in the UEFA Cup Final in 1999, losing to Parma. Courbis left the team in November 1999, after a poor start to the season. The closest Marseille got to another trophy was when they reached the UEFA Cup Final in 2004, impressively beating Dnipro, Internazionale, Liverpool, and Newcastle United along the way. But they were beaten in the final by newly-crowned Spanish champions Valencia and once again fans were forced to continue waiting for the next trophy to come along. In 2005, Marseille succeeded in winning the Intertoto Cup, beating the likes of Lazio and Deportivo La Coruña in doing so, and earning another shot at the UEFA Cup. In January 2007, there was negotiation between Dreyfus and Jack Kachkar, a Canadian doctor and businessman (CEO of pharmaceutical company Inyx), about selling the club. As Jack Kachkar took too much time to buy the team, Robert Louis-Dreyfus decided on 22 March 2007 not to sell to the Canadian businessman. Another close call to glory was in the Coupe de France final against Sochaux in May 2007. However, they lost on penalties after a 2–2 draw after extra time, to the disappointment of everyone linked with the club, but they soon wiped all that disappointment away by qualifying for the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League group stage, after securing 2nd place with a game to go.

In the Champions League, Marseille became the first French team to win at Anfield when they beat 2007 runners-up Liverpool 1–0, and the team took 6 out of 6 points from their opening two games. They only drew one more match, and in a winner-takes-all final group game they lost 4–0 to Liverpool, who became the first English team to win at the Stade Vélodrome. Marseille, coming third in the Champions League Group A, then joined the UEFA Cup. Marseille finished the 2008–09 season with a second place finish in Ligue 1, following a tight race with Bordeaux for the title. This earned them direct entry into the group stages of the UEFA Champions League, their third consecutive season in the competition. Marseille won the 2010 Coupe de la Ligue Final beating Bordeaux 3–1 at the Stade de France in March 2010. This was their first major title since their Champions League triumph 17 years earlier. Two months later, Marseille won their first league championship for 18 years with two games to spare after beating Rennes 3–1. Marseille defeated PSG on penalties to win the 2010 Trophée des Champions at Stade 7 Novembre in Rades, Tunisia before the season began. Marseille then became the first team to win back-to-back Coupe de la Ligue successes when they won the 2011 edition by beating Montpellier 1–0 on 23 April. Before that, they qualified for the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League for the first time since their historic success, but lost 2–1 at Old Trafford to Manchester United and also set a Champions League record by thrashing Žilina 7–0 in what was the biggest away win in the competition's history. In 2011, Marseille lost the Ligue 1 championship title but qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the fifth time in a row, a club record. On 27 July 2011, Marseille won the 2011 Trophée des Champions title by beating Lille 5–4 at Stade de Tanger in Morocco. The result was significant as OM were 3–1 down with 5 minutes to go, only to embark on a remarkable comeback which saw 5 goals scored in the last five minutes with Andre Ayew scoring a hat-trick.