Marked for Marcel Duval
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match30 Oct 2030
Pau FC are out and Olympique de Marseille go through, 3‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympique de Marseille will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Marcel Duval, 17, steals the show — 8.28
Marked 8.28 at 17, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market4 Nov 2030
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympique de Marseille heard it as anything else.
Match2 Nov 2030
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Match2 Nov 2030
A 2‑1 win over RC Lens, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces4 Nov 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Marcel Duval has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Sep 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympique de Marseille will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Sep 2030
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
Marcel Duval: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympique de Marseille have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Orkun Kökçü was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match28 Sep 2030
Stade Brestois left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Philippe Barré after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
Gustavo Perez gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gustavo Perez is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Apr 2030
1‑2 against Paris Saint-Germain, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.04, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Olympique de Marseille may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
Up for the corner, and Aurélien Tchouaméni delivers — 7.87
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Aurélien Tchouaméni scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom8 Apr 2030
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Joris Silvente has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Dmytro Riznyk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vangelis Pavlidis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmytro Riznyk, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Dec 2029
A 1‑0 win over RC Strasbourg, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
What a way to start for Marcel Duval — 7.27
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.27 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Match31 Dec 2029
Position 2, 36 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
A brace, and Ilan Kebbal takes the afternoon — 8.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ilan Kebbal provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match29 Dec 2029
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market31 Dec 2029
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Olympique de Marseille can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Dmytro Riznyk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Dec 2029
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.