26 May 1993. Munich Olympic Stadium. Champions League final. 44th minute of play. On a corner on the right side shot by Abedi Pelé, Basile Boli took the lead over his direct opponent, Frank Rijkaard, and placed a cross header that ended up in the back of Sebastiano Rossi's net. A helmet blow entered into posterity since it allowed Olympique de Marseille to overcome the terrible AC Milan and lift the cup with big ears, a first - still to this day - for a French club.
This goal, the French defender does not owe it to chance. "Abedi (Pelé, Marseille midfielder) had warned me before the game, that as the Milanese were great, he would shoot corners at the first post. He had asked me to be there. On the goal, I see him looking for me with his eyes like lasers and I say to myself "I'm going to go in case the ball arrives, because if I don't go, he will yell at me." And the balloon arrived...", he explained to Le Figaro in 2013. However, this realization almost never existed.
SEE ALSO – Boli, Lucho Gonzalez, Sakai: the top 5 iconic goals of OM
Wounded, he could have given up his place
Indeed, ten minutes before scoring this legendary goal, the "hero of Munich", hit in a knee, could have given up his place. At least that was his intention. Jean-Pierre Bernès, the former Marseille general manager, present on the bench alongside Raymond Goethals that evening, recalled this episode for L'Equipe: "Basil begins to hold his knee, morally, it is not going well. Basil is a fighter. He just has to feel behind him that there is all his staff. [...] I tell Raymond that Bernard and I have decided that he stays, and he tells me that he too prefers," he recalled. Before stressing that "the 44th minute exists because there is the 35th, where it is decided that Basil does not go out".
With hindsight, Pascal Olmeta, substitute in this crazy Munich evening, believes that if his teammate asked to leave, it was "because he was afraid". "Basil, he is so big teddy bears, so adorable nice that he would not hurt a fly, that during the game, a little pain made him doubt. If there are no words to tell him "you stay, you play"... It's true, he asked to go out, but for nothing, because he was afraid of doing wrong, he explained to Le Figaro. Because it's his kindness. Today you talk to him, he can only smile at you. He's an amazing guy.
»" READ ALSO OM-Milan: plunge into the euphoria of Munich in Marseille
SEE ALSO - Bernard Tapie's legacy at Olympique de Marseille
There shouldn't have been a corner
If the goal should never have seen the light of day, it is also because Olympique de Marseille should not have benefited from a corner. On the action on the right side that leads to this spot-kick, Paolo Maldini and Abedi Pelé are in the duel. In fact, it is the Ghanaian who takes the ball out of bounds outside the limits of the pitch. But the referee of the match believes that it is the Italian. "We knew he wasn't there, huh," admitted Jocelyn Angloma, who was a starter on the right side of the Marseille defense on this final. Quite far from the action, Eric De Meco, he is not able to pronounce: "The corner, we see the Italians who say that it is not there, but I am so far from this action ...", he said to the sports daily.
This error of appreciation, the Phocaeans knew how to take advantage of. Basil Boli's header, just before half-time, was a real blow for the Rossoneri: "When there is the goal, it tips. The Italians are no longer there. Behind, you have an iron defense, you are well in goal, "remembered, for Le Figaro, Pascal Olmeta. Thirty years later, it is not this controversial corner that we remember, but indeed the goal of Basile Boli and the Marseille coronation in the Champions League. The first of a French club. For now.
OM 1993: Barthez, Boli, Völler... What happened to the heroes?
Go to slideshow (16)
