"
I'm the coach of PSG and I was born in Marseille, it's a fact
", agreed Christophe Galtier in July.
A little more than that actually.
Marseille and the Olympian club have a big part in the life and career of the Paris Saint-Germain coach.
Marseille, like a magnet for "Galette", who knew everything there, all his first times as a footballer and technician, or almost.
It was nevertheless in Gerland that little Christophe experienced his first emotions in the stands, where he was bitten by the football virus.
A policeman, his father (disappeared in 2016) had been transferred to Lyon for a few years before… returning to Marseille, to Les Caillols.
To discover
Calendar and results Ligue 1
League 1 standings
It is precisely with the Sport Olympique Caillolais that Christophe Galtier discovered the joys of the locker room and the field.
A youth already spent in the orbit of OM, alongside the Cantona, in particular Eric, alongside whom he won the Euro U21 in 1988. There was sport-studies under the orders of the former half- 1958 World Cup finalist Celestin Oliver, the latter having pushed to send him to the training center of Olympique de Marseille.
It was not won, but Gérard Gili finally caught up with him at the last moment.
“
I was marked by Gérard Gili, my educator, my trainer, he transmitted to us the true values of the profession
, he underlined in 2019, when he officiated in Lille, in an interview with FC Marseille
.
When we meet again with the players of this generation of the training center, there is always a name that comes back, his, this rigor, this ability to make us understand what the job is.
Gili was even his coach, and Galtier was his assistant afterwards, still in Marseille.
In Marseilles where it all begins
Still, Galtier rose through the ranks to make his professional debut with OM (1985-87).
After having traveled around (Lille, Toulouse, Angers, Nîmes), it was obviously in Marseille that this rough, hard-working, lodger defender with a sacred character played his last two seasons in France (1995-97), before two experiences abroad (Monza, Liaoning Yuandong).
1999, the hour of retirement.
Conversion in fact.
A second life on the benches that Galtier envisaged from his playing career.
More than that, since he already had all the necessary diplomas before celebrating his 30th birthday.
Absolutely obvious to him.
And of course, it was to Marseille that he returned.
Successively assistant to Bernard Casoni, Abel Braga, Javier Clemente, Tomislav Ivic or Albert Emon, he spent two years at the Vélodrome (1999-2001) before leaving far from his hometown, in France and elsewhere, as number 2 (Salonique, Bastia , Al-Ain, Sochaux, Lyon, ASSE).
A role in which he gleaned his first trophy… against OM, with Sochaux, in the Coupe de France (2-2 after, 5-4 on pens), that cannot be invented.
Read alsoLigue 1: “We will have to do the opposite of what we did during the Coupe de France match”, insists Galtier before OM-PSG
The rest, we know it, with experiences as number 1 on the benches of Saint-Etienne (2009-17), Lille (2017-21) and Nice (2021-22) before answering the call from Paris … and Luis Campos, his former buddy from Lille.
And OM in all this?
His name has often been cited to take the reins of the Marseille team, the person concerned, promising that he was in fact never asked.
We heard him say that it was “
neither an objective nor an ambition
”, nevertheless emphasizing that he had been “
marked by the logo.
I am from Marseille, I was trained in Marseille, I was a player there… No one can remain insensitive to the call from the foot of OM
”, he slipped, promising that the only inconvenience to train OM for a Marseillais, "
it's
".
OM's last French championship title?
With Didier Deschamps, Marseillais by adoption.
The last double?
Under Gili's orders.
It is not impossible.
Train OM?
As a Marseillais… I answer you yes.
It's a club that leaves no one indifferent.
Christophe Galtier
In 2021, before winning the title with a Losc that he did not see himself leaving, Christophe Galtier no longer hid his desire, on
Canal +
: “
Training OM?
As a Marseillais… I answer you yes.
But we don't train OM in just any condition.
You have to be armed, in great shape, but it's a club that leaves no one indifferent.
In Paris too, it is better to be well armed… Galtier realizes this at the moment more than ever, while the boat is rocking seriously.
The victory snatched against Lille (4-3) last Sunday does not erase everything… “
Once, not twice.
Be ruthless with them
“, Hammered the Parisian Ultras on Friday, at the Parc des Princes, during a training session exceptionally open to the public.
They were obviously referring to the recent defeat of Paris-Saint-Germain at the Vélodrome, in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France (2-1), on February 8.
For them, there is no question of suffering a second loss in a row against OM this Sunday (8:45 p.m.), during the 25th day of Ligue 1.
Christophe Galtier had a bad time for his return to Marseille on February 8... Norbert Scanella / Panoramic
Galtier and his players are fixed before this Classic which counts double, knowing that OM would fall to two points behind PSG in the Ligue 1 classification in the event of victory.
“
When I arrived at PSG, I knew that there would be matches against OM
, said the 56-year-old technician before the previous OM-PSG
.
I am going to completely ignore the fact that I was born in Marseille, that I am from Marseille, that I played for OM.
I am the coach of PSG.
I know what these matches represent.
(…) I made sure to close all the "arrivals", on my laptop or on a family plan in order to stay focused on preparing for the match.
It will be the same before the duel this Sunday.
Maximum pressure
A speech that echoes his first Parisian press conference: “
We do a job of passion, I want to win as many trophies as possible and there is no better place than PSG for that.
It is a symbol of French football.
I arrived 45 minutes ago at the Parc des Princes and there is a sentence that stands out: "Here it is Paris".
When we had the first contacts, I put aside my Marseille origins and believe me, for weeks, my days and my nights have been devoted to PSG.
“The future will tell if it is destined to last, knowing that its future on the banks of the Seine could be dashed in the event of a premature exit in the Champions League, with the round of 16 return scheduled for March 8. , in Munich.
Read alsoOM-PSG: why this Classic is a real shock at the top
In which case, we imagine that the names of José Mourinho, Thiago Motta or Thomas Tuchel will come back insistently to take his place.
Even that of… Zinédine Zidane, even more stamped Marseille than Christophe Galtier, who will sooner or later find Marseille, the Mediterranean.
“
The sea?
I always need to go there to recharge my batteries.
I live in Cassis which is an extraordinary village where I can go facing the sea and/or the sea. I think the Mediterranean is magnificent and where it is the most beautiful is in Corsica.
The sea is really a place where I go to rest, relax.
It calms me down
, ”he slipped in 2021, for
20 Minutes
.
An appeasement that he would find a little, for a few days at least, if “his” Paris Saint-Germain potted him against “his” OM this Sunday evening, in “his” Vélodrome.
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