The former defender of Olympique de Marseille, European champion in 1993, who became a football consultant on RMC, tries blind auditions with Osiris, his cover band from Oasis, of which he is a bassist. An even more intense experience than a match with Les Bleus!
CLOSER What were you looking for by taking part in the blind auditions with your group Osiris?
ERIC DI MECO Musician is not my job. I am an autodidact and so I wanted to set myself a big challenge. With my group (founded in 2019), we play in halls of a hundred people all over France and it’s already a lot of pressure for me. But for The Voice, I felt the stress to the bottom of my guts.
Even more than in the first Champions League final that you won with OM in 1993?
Yes ! I was always programmed to walk into a stadium with 60,000 people. It galvanized me more than it inhibited me. But with The Voice, I knew I was going to be watched and criticized more in an area that I don’t know, like football.
“We are looking elsewhere for adrenaline shots”
Music is one of your reconversions. Do you remember how you felt after ending your professional football career?
We go from light to shade and look elsewhere for adrenaline shots. But I didn’t really know those painful moments when you dwell on your career on your sofa, because I had anticipated my retraining. For thirteen years, I worked as a youth assistant at the town hall of Marseille. I took care of young people in sensitive neighborhoods by trying to transmit to them a taste for sport and music. And, for fifteen years, I have been a columnist in the Super Moscato Show on RMC.
How did you experience the death of Bernard Tapie, your president at OM?
His death affected me a lot. And yet, our relationship was quite complicated when he arrived at OM. We even fell out in 1994 when I left for Monaco. Nevertheless, he was for me a man above all of us and the announcement of his cancer made him human, even more endearing than at the time of his splendor. Bernard Tapie, it was one of the most beautiful periods of my life.
“I would like to write a stand-up on my journey”
Why were your reports so complicated?
I was the only player from the Marseille training center. In his eyes, I was worthless, because I was not a star like those he recruited. I had to impose myself in this team with the force of my wrist. It was thanks to his wife Dominique that I stayed, because she admired my warrior side on the pitch.
Are you drawn to the theater like Frank Leboeuf?
Following a bet with Moscato, I had to open for his one-man show. Fifteen minutes of intense happiness that made me want to continue. I would like to write a stand-up on my rather atypical life course. Me, the son of a mason who started out as a footballer to end up at The Voice! (Laughs.) It will be more interactive than a book that might not interest anyone.
What do you think of the new generation of footballers?
I don’t envy them. Admittedly, they receive a lot of money, but the media coverage prevents them from having a normal life. At the time, I could party without the photographers. I admire a player like Mbappé because he hasn’t lost his way. In his place and with such a salary, I would have completely screwed up.
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© Capture TF1 – The Voice
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Eric Di Meco: “For The Voice, I felt the stress to the bottom of my guts”
“With The Voice, I knew that I was going to be watched and criticized more in an area that I don’t master like football,” he explains.
© Capture TF1 – The Voice
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Eric Di Meco: “For The Voice, I felt the stress to the bottom of my guts”
For thirteen years, he worked as a youth assistant at the town hall of Marseille. And for fifteen years, he has been a columnist in the Super Moscato Show on RMC.
© Capture TF1 – The Voice
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Eric Di Meco: “For The Voice, I felt the stress to the bottom of my guts”
“He was for me a man above all of us”, he confides about Bernard Tapie, who died last October.
© Capture TF1 – The Voice
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Eric Di Meco: “For The Voice, I felt the stress to the bottom of my guts”
However, he had sometimes complicated relations with the former boss of OM.
© Capture TF1 – The Voice
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Eric Di Meco: “For The Voice, I felt the stress to the bottom of my guts”
“I was the only player from the Marseille training center. In his eyes, I was worth nothing, because I was not a star like those he recruited,” he explains.
© Capture TF1 – The Voice
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Eric Di Meco: “For The Voice, I felt the stress to the bottom of my guts”
Eric di Meco also says he wants to write a stand-up based on his life story.
© Capture TF1 – The Voice
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Eric Di Meco: “For The Voice, I felt the stress to the bottom of my guts”
“I don’t envy them,” he explains of current footballers. “I admire a player like MBappé, because he hasn’t lost control. In his place and with such a salary, I would have completely screwed up.”