1st Team

The list of Olympiens to have been champions of the world

World Cup
Posted by
Adam Geigerman
On Monday 16 July 2018 at 10:00

Steve MandandaAdil Rami and Florian Thauvin have just lived the most beautiful evening of their careers on Sunday in Moscow. The three Olympiens have conquered the Holy Grail of football by pocketing the World Cup. They join a level of elite players as OM champions.

In 1998, there were three more: Christophe Dugarry, Laurent Blanc and Robert Pires (he had signed his contract with OM before the start of the competition).

However, throughout the Club's history, there are many more players who were world champions before or after their stints in Marseille. The first two are Brazilians Paulo Cesar and Jairzinho, world champions in 1970 and Olympiens in 1974-75. They were also the first world champions to play in France.

It wasn't until the 1990s before more world champions arrived to OM. German coach Franz Beckenbauer, crowned in 1990 in Italy, was recruited by Bernard Tapie to coach OM in 1990-91. In 1992, German attacker Rudi Völler engaged with the club. He remain ed with the club for two seasons and won the Champions League in 1993. Goalkeeper Andreas Köpke was the last member of the 1990 world champion team to join Marseille. He minded the Olympien goal between 1996 and 1998.

There were many among the 1998 world champion French team to wear the Olympien jersey before or after Les Bleus' first world title. In addition to the three players under contract with OM at the time of the World Cup (Dugarry, Blanc and Pires), Fabien Barthez, Marcel Desailly, Bixente Lizarazu, Frank Leboeuf, Didier Deschamps, and Alain Boghossian all wore the Blue and White jersey at some point in their careers.

After Sunday, we must also add members of the staff to this prestigious list. Guy Stéphan, Didier Deschamps's assistant with Les Bleus, was with OM between 2009 and 2012. Les Olympien's current doctor, Franck Le Gall, is also a member of France's medical team.