Days after being crushed 5-0 by fierce rivals Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille announced early on Wednesday that coach Roberto De Zerbi had left the team “by mutual agreement.”
A return to the Premier League has been suggested for the 46-year-old Italian manager, who has been in charge since the summer of 2024.
Marseille lost badly against PSG on Sunday, dropping them to fourth place in Ligue 1 after they were eliminated from the Champions League last month.
“Following discussions between all stakeholders in the club’s management — the owner, president, director of football, and coach — it was decided to make a change at the helm of the first team,” the club said in a statement following days of speculation about his future.
“To address the sporting challenges of the end of the season, this was a difficult collective decision that was made after careful consideration in the best interests of the club.”
De Zerbi had trained on Monday and Tuesday as usual, but according to a source who spoke to AFP, after a meeting with club executives, everyone decided to part ways.
According to the insider, “a shift in strategy was required to guarantee that we meet our goals at the end of the season, particularly Champions League qualification.”
Last season, De Zerbi led Marseille to second place in the league, behind PSG.
They started the season well, defeating Le Havre 6-2 in mid-October to take the lead in the league.
After winning 5-1 against Nice at the end of November, they were in second place, just two points behind PSG.
They are three points behind Lyon in the final automatic Champions League qualification spot and 12 points behind the defending champions, but they have only won three of their past eight league games. Finishing in fourth place would require them to enter a play-off to advance to the league phase.
However, their back-to-back 3-0 losses to Club Brugge and Liverpool at home to conclude their Champions League campaign were even more devastating.
After Benfica goalie Anatoliy Trubin’s last-minute goal against Real Madrid gave the Portuguese team a lead in the rankings, they were eliminated on goal differential.
A few weeks ago, De Zerbi declared that he had “no explanation” for his team’s erratic performance.
“I would find the solution to this inconsistency at any cost,” he declared.
After a fruitful two years at Premier League Brighton, where he led them to sixth place in his debut season, he moved to southern France.
Prior to that, he was the coach of Shakhtar Donetsk, a Ukrainian team.
In the past four years, Marseille has now had six full-time coaches.
