Game over. The president of Olympique de Marseille announced, Thursday, May 31, the upcoming departure of the coach of the Marseille club, Igor Tudor, on the sidelines of a press conference. "We accepted and respected the wish of our coach Igor Tudor not to continue the adventure next season," said Pablo Longoria. Igor Tudor (45) was appointed in July 2022 to replace Argentinian Jorge Sampaoli and will leave Marseille after a year ended in 3rd place in Ligue 1.
"It was an honor to spend a year in such a club, to be part of this grandiose family, with tifosi that we see little, an energy in the city that we see little, for his part explained Igor Tudor . I leave the club in a better situation than when I arrived, in many respects and I leave proud. "I made this decision to leave for professional and private reasons. I don't have any agreement with another club, I'm not leaving because I'm angry with someone," he added. “There were problems, beautiful things and other not so beautiful. A year here is like two or three elsewhere. I agree with myself, it's a decision I've been thinking about for a while. I gave 100%, with sleepless nights, thinking, analyzing,” he said.
"Igor gave us his work culture and his level of requirement, his ambition to build things around effort and good values," Longoria said.
The Croatian technician had met OM president Pablo Longoria on Tuesday and discussions continued on Wednesday with his agent. The management of the Marseille club then hoped to keep him for another season, even if the matter already seemed to be settled.
The mandate of the former player of Juventus Turin and ex-Croatian international had started with a torrent of whistles falling from the stands of the Vélodrome to salute his name during the 1st day of L1 against Reims after a campaign of very disappointing friendly matches. His start to the season had been rather promising, however, until the return of the long winter break linked to the World Cup, with in particular a victory against PSG, expected for more than ten years at home.
But OM missed the mark in the Champions League by being eliminated in the group stage without even being transferred to the Europa League, then by being taken out by Annecy in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France before losing to Lens in the league (2-1), leaving the Sang et Or to finish in 2nd place.
OM will therefore have to settle for 3rd position in Ligue 1 and will have to go through a 3rd preliminary round and then a play-off to hope to participate in the Champions League next season.
Since the start of the Frank Mc Court era, owner of the club since October 2016, five coaches have already sat on the Marseille bench: Rudi Garcia, André Villas-Boas, Nasser Larguet for an interim court, Jorge Sampaoli and Igor Tudor.
Only Garcia stayed for more than two years and Villas-Boas, Sampaoli and Tudor all chose to leave Marseille.
While OM's season will resume on August 8 or 9 with a third preliminary round of the Champions League, Pablo Longoria will have to quickly find a successor to the Croatian. The Spanish manager and his director of football Javier Ribalta are convinced that the profile of Tudor, oriented towards work, physicality and direct play, was the right one and they will perhaps target a technician with similar ideas.
Tudor could return to Italy. He was still presented this Thursday in Tuttosport as the first choice of Juventus in the event of the departure of Massimiliano Allegri.
