Cantona would not approve: Christophe Galatieri's appointment at PSG is destined for fiasco

The new coach of the French champion, the childhood friend of Eric Cantona and the big fan of Zinedine Zidane, performed miracles in clubs where expectations were low and the young players saw him as an authority.

Now a burnt-out Marseille fan walks into a dressing room that is 180 degrees opposite to what he needs

Michael Yochin

06/07/2022

Wednesday, 06 July 2022, 12:30 p.m.

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We ticked off: Today's summary clip, 5.7 (Sports 1)

Zinedine Zidane has long been Qatari's favorite candidate for the job of Paris Saint-Germain coach, but was put off by it - both because of the nature of the project, but mainly because of his complete identification with Marseille.

He was born in the southern city, grew up in the stands of Stade Velodrome, loves the club very much, and beyond his most sworn opponent feels completely unnatural to him.

He's not built for it.

In his situation, he does not have to force himself to do so.

And there is quite a bit of irony in the fact that the man chosen for the role, Christoph Galatia, suffers from exactly the same problem.

He too was born in Marseille, he too grew up in the stands of Stade Velodrome.

His father usually worked as a police officer during the games, but he did not have much employment, and he was mostly a spectator.

Occasionally he also took little Christoph and his two older brothers in secret, without paying for them.

Galatia drew the atmosphere and these are his founding childhood memories.

Marseille cannot be taken out of his heart, nor is he really interested in it.

He still lives there - that is, he comes on football holidays to his home in the magical town of Cassie, a few miles from the city, to experience the sea and breathe the air he loves so much.

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He and Galatia are similar in quite a few areas.

Zidane (Photo: Reuters)

An Algerian like Zidane - just the opposite

Galatia, 55, is older than Zidane, but admires him.

They have common roots, even if in a slightly different way.

Zizu is the son of immigrants from Algeria, as is Galatia - but he is a descendant of ethnic white French people who were born in North Africa and fled when the country gained independence in 1962.

For his parents, who even lost relatives in the war that took place there, a return to the historical homeland was a real tragedy.

In their opinion, they were expelled from what was supposed to be theirs.

When Christoph grew up and claimed in their ears that "Algeria belongs to the Algerians," they were astonished to the depths of their souls and angry.

Their political views were right-wing, but Galatia himself was different.

He sees Marseille as a melting pot for immigrants from different places, and loved it very much.

That's why Zidane's dizzying rise to national hero status in 1998 was so exciting for him.

So he was also very proud that Jean Tigana grew up like him in the city's La Cayel district, and started his career as a footballer in the tiny neighborhood club like him.

The great French team of the 80s was a great inspiration for him.

She played breathtaking offensive football, like the first team she really fell in love with - Johan Cruyff's Holland in the '70s.

A childhood friend of Cantona.

Galatia (Photo: Reuters)

Cantona's closest childhood friend

And not just Tigana.

From the age of seven, Galatia was Eric Cantona's best friend, another boy from the neighborhood who lived on a nearby street.

Together, they dreamed of reaching the peaks.

Together, they played in La Kayol.

Together, they studied at the school of Celestine Olivier, also a Frenchman born in Algeria, a striker who was included in the squad for the 1958 World Cup and later became a great coach and educator.

They even co-won the European Under-21 Championship in 1988, with a squad that also included Laurent Blanc, Alan Roche and Frank Souza.

In the quarterfinals, they ousted Paulo Maldini's Italy.

In the semi-finals, they also defeated Paul Gascoigne's England.

Cantona was the star who bombed three goals in both encounters against the English.

Galatia was much less well-publicized because he played as a defender, but was considered a big promise.

Unlike Zidane, he fulfilled his big dream of playing for Marseille.

He was admitted to the academy at the age of 16, progressed rapidly and was included in the squad when he was 19 years old.

However, then Bernard Taffy took over the club with particularly ostentatious plans, tossing all the "simple" local players to sign superstars.

Galatia began to wander in more modest groups - Lille, Toulouse, Angers, Nimes.

He did not advance to the senior team, and remained completely anonymous outside his homeland.

He only returned to his beloved Marseille in 1995, when Taffy's card tower crashed in the famous corruption and game sale affair, following which the club was relegated to the Second Division.

He missed her glory years, but maybe it was for the better.

Perhaps this is a sign that it is not suitable for money-soaked projects that are built on sin.

Galatia made him a star.

Obmiang in Saint-Etienne (Photo: Reuters)

Made Obmiang a star

Even after hanging up his shoes, Galatia returned to Marseille to start his career as an assistant coach in 1999.

His image was damaged when he was suspended for six months following an incident in which he attacked Marcelo Gerardo in the tunnel - along with other players and coaches - at the end of the game against Monaco.

As an assistant he even traveled to Aris Thessaloniki and Bastia, then found the most suitable boss for him in the character of Alan Fran.

Galatia served as Fran's assistant on his trips to El Ain from the Emirates, Portsmouth, Sosho, Lyon and Saint-Etienne.

He was called the Shadow because he preferred to work behind the scenes, and for a decade it seemed to be his destiny in life - after all, there are assistants who are never interested in advancing to the lead role.

In practice the situation was different.

Galatia learned a lot from everyone, especially enjoyed the six months he spent in the Premier League and waited patiently for the opportunity.

She arrived in December 2009, when Fran Potter was sacked by Saint-Etienne, and the assistant replaced him with the aim of trying to save the team from real danger of relegation.

He did so, stabilized the ship - and continued to work with the Greens until 2017 while improving young people and ensuring consistent and gradual promotion.

His most famous trainee during this period was Pierre-Emerick Umbiang - a talented but failed striker who did not find himself in all the teams to which he was loaned from Milan.

His career was on the verge of doom until Galatea took him on as a personal mission.

"I saw that he was able to pass anyone with a ball in motion, and only needed guidance to build self-confidence," he said in retrospect.

The first half of the season yielded only two goals, but the mentor asked management to sign Obmiang nonetheless.

In the two seasons full of the green uniform, the striker from Gabon bombed 39 goals, before being sold to Borussia Dortmund.

He inherited total chaos, but laid the foundations on the way to an incredible championship.

Galatia with night players (Photo: Reuters)

The miracle of the championship with Lil

By and large, this is Galatiya's most powerful feature.

He excels mostly with young players with high potential, and needs industrial quiet at the club in order to build long-term plans.

At Saint-Etienne everyone was ready to kiss his feet after marching the team from the bottom to the top, regularly qualifying for the Europa League and even coming to visit Manchester United in his final season in 2017.

These are also the conditions he received at night, where he inherited utter chaos after a terrible and turbulent tenure of Marcelo Bailesa, was completely backed by management, laid the foundations as he sees fit, worked in exemplary collaboration with sporting director Luis Campus - and it ended in an absolutely amazing championship in 2021 at the expense of Paris Saint-Germain.

This success has, of course, led to frequent reports of the possibility of his return to Marseille.

Andre Villas-Boas, for example, directly accused him of trying to take over before retiring independently in early 2021. Galatia then replied: "Obviously I will not oppose coaching Marseille, but I am not obsessed with it. I really like the city and "The fans, and that's an integral part of me, but that's where it ends. I would not be frustrated if I finished my career without working for Marseille."

It started well in Nice, but many there breathed a sigh of relief when he left.

Galatia with Andy Delor (Photo: Reuters)

Failed with the locker room in Nice

Then, as if to demonstrate how true this statement is, he signed a year ago in Nice - a big regional rival of Marseille.

Symbolically, as early as last August, the derby between them exploded following a violent riot by Nice fans attacking the Marseille players, to Galatia’s utter astonishment.

It was his first experience at a club with big ambitions and players with a significant ego in the locker room.

It ended badly for him.

After a very encouraging opening, in which he defeated Lille 0: 4 in the second round on the spicy visit to the ex, the business fell apart.

The team did not fulfill its mission to qualify for the Champions League, local journalists reported that the coach preferred certain players, while other stars felt ostracized.

This caused divisions in the locker room: the Galatia camp confronted the camp of its opponents, and in recent months the atmosphere has become unbearable.

The loss to Nantes in the League Cup final finally wiped out hopes of a resurgence, and very many breathed a sigh of relief when Galatia left in late June.

Swiss Lucian Faber has returned for a new term in his place.

Anyone who failed to put out fires in Nice will not be honored by Killian Ambape, Neymar and Leo Messi.

Galatia (Photo: Reuters)

Goes against everything he represents

Galatia's fans say he is able to adapt to a variety of conditions and adapt himself.

"He's like a chameleon," says Fran, who has worked with him in so many places.

However, as an independent coach this proved to be true only at Saint-Etienne and at night, where expectations were low, backing was extensive, and the players saw him as a supreme authority.

A jump into deeper water turned out to be a mistake, but now he is making a much bigger step towards the most mediated and ego-saturated project imaginable - certainly on French soil.

One can understand in principle the statements of Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khalafi that the club is changing strategy and trying a local coach who has grown from the bottom up after the big foreign names failed, but that is only good on paper.

Bottom line, Galatiya just goes to a place that is completely opposite to everything he represents, into the dressing room with 180-degree inverted properties to what he needs to work according to his principles.

It's not him.

It really does not suit him - even before taking into account the fact that he is cheating on himself in his loyalty to Marseille.

The man who failed to put out fires in Nice will not be honored by Killian Ambape, Neymar and Leo Messi.

Although he currently has a back from Luis Campus, the friend from the happy days of the night who is responsible for his recruitment in his new role as "adviser" to Qatar, a miracle must happen for this relationship to suffice.

Zidane knows this, so he's not there.

Cantona knows this for sure.

Does Galatia himself understand this as well?

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