Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin / Photo credit: FLORENT GOODEN / DPPI media / DPPI via AFP
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10:07 p.m., May 25, 2023
30 years ago, Olympique de Marseille won the Champions League against the great AC Milan. An exceptional performance for French football which is still a landmark today. On the occasion of the special broadcast of “Europe 1 Sport” dedicated to this anniversary, the former Marseille goalkeeper Fabien Barthez returned to this memory forever engraved in him.
“All this brings so much to the life of a player, but also to the life of a man”. From this title in the Champions League final won in 1993 against AC Milan, the former Marseille goalkeeper Fabien Barthez has forgotten nothing. Exclusive to the show Europe 1 Sport (every evening from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), the former doorman of the France team spoke about this title which marked his start to his career.
Freshly landed in the Phocaean city, the native of Lavelanet in the Ariège is immersed in 1992 in the great Marseille bath after being noticed in Toulouse. At not even 22 years old, the goalkeeper is having his first full season with OM. A work rewarded by a final won in the Champions League against AC Milan. But the latter is difficult to achieve at the moment. Today he retains only “flashes”. “I remember I was looking in the tunnel. I was detailing the Milan players. The Maldini, Baresi, Van Basten: I was looking at what they looked like in real life. I saw them at the Euro before that. And there, I find yourself next to them in the hallway so you are in awe. I had them 50 centimeters from me. They were not opponents for me”, recalled the 1998 world champion with the Blues.
One hour nap
With Basile Boli, Fabien Barthez is one of the heroes of this final. Rejecting all the attempts of the Dutch triple gold ball Marco Van Basten, the Marseille goalkeeper surprised and made a name for himself on the European scene during this final won 1-0. His secret? Serenity. He admits it, Fabien Barthez “napped for an hour” during the bus trip to Munich, the meeting place. This nap meant “that I was in the game. I think I was calm but above all happy to go and play this match in this legendary stadium against AC Milan”, admitted Fabien Barthez in Europe 1 Sport.
Even today, the former Marseille goalkeeper uses this title to “transmit and exchange with young players”. The only French club to have won a Champions League, OM is anchored for life in the tricolor football landscape. For Fabien Barthez, “everyone remembers (this title) because it’s the first. We talk about it like we talk about 98”, compared the latter. “Forever the first”, a phrase that has become the emblem of the Marseille city. “The first times it marks, after behind it is not the same. And especially with Olympique de Marseille, you know what this club represents in the landscape of French football”, concluded the former footballer converted into a racing driver. .