Olympique de Marseille
Also written as Marseille.
The club
Olympique de Marseille were founded on 31 August 1899 by René Dufaure de Montmirail, growing out of the earlier Football Club de Marseille, itself a merger of student clubs from the Lycée de Marseille and the Collège Saint-Ignace. The "Olympique" name honours the Ancient Olympic Games and the Phocaean Greeks who founded the city of Marseille, which is why the club is nicknamed Les Phocéens as well as Les Olympiens. Marseille play in blue and white, colours taken from the city's flag, and are the club side of France's second city, with a long-standing rivalry against Paris Saint-Germain contested as Le Classique, cast as the south against the capital.
The ground is the Stade Vélodrome, in use since 1937 and rebuilt in stages for the 1998 World Cup and again for UEFA Euro 2016; capacity is 67,394, making it one of the largest club stadiums in France. Two curved ends, the Virage Nord and the Virage Sud, house the supporter groups; Marseille say they are the only French club with six ultras groups gathered in the same stadium, tracing back to Commando Ultra '84, founded in August 1984 as the first ultras group in the country.
The head coach is the Frenchman Bruno Génésio, appointed on 1 July 2026 on a two-year contract after Habib Beye was sacked. Beye had himself replaced Roberto De Zerbi, who left during the 2025/26 season; Beye's brief was Champions League qualification and a Coupe de France semi-final, and results falling short of both cost him the job. Génésio had left Lille OSC at the end of 2025/26 having taken that club back into the Champions League. The club president is Stéphane Richard, who succeeded Pablo Longoria, with Grégory Lorenzi, formerly of Stade Brestois, as sporting director.
Recent seasons
Marseille finished fifth in Ligue 1 in 2020/21 with 60 points. They were runners-up in 2021/22 with 71 points (21 wins, 8 draws, 9 defeats) and third in 2022/23 with 73 points (22 wins, 7 draws, 9 defeats). The 2023/24 season was much weaker, eighth place on 50 points from a reduced 34-match campaign (13 wins, 11 draws, 10 defeats), before a return to second in 2024/25 with 65 points (20 wins, 5 draws, 9 defeats). In 2025/26 they finished fifth with 59 points (18 wins, 5 draws, 11 defeats), the finish that sent them into the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League rather than the Champions League.
Honours and landmarks
Marseille have won the French league title nine times, in 1936/37, 1947/48, 1970/71, 1971/72, 1988/89, 1989/90, 1990/91, 1991/92 and 2009/10. They have won the Coupe de France ten times, in 1924, 1926, 1927, 1935, 1938, 1943, 1969, 1972, 1976 and 1989. They have also won the Coupe de la Ligue three times, in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and the Trophée des Champions, including in 2010 and 2011.
The club's defining landmark is the 1993 European Cup, won 1-0 over AC Milan in Munich on 26 May 1993 with a goal from Basile Boli, making Marseille the only French club to have won the European Cup or Champions League. The triumph was clouded by the French football bribery scandal of the same year: club president Bernard Tapie and general manager Jean-Pierre Bernès were found to have arranged for Valenciennes players to underperform in a league match played six days before the final, so that Marseille's first team could rest key players; the resulting convictions saw Marseille stripped of that season's French title and relegated to the second division, and banned from defending the European Cup, though UEFA allowed the club to keep the trophy itself. Marseille had also reached the 1991 European Cup final, lost 0-0 on penalties (5-3) to Red Star Belgrade in Bari on 29 May 1991. They were runners-up in the UEFA Cup/Europa League three times, losing the 1999 final 3-0 to Parma in Moscow, the 2004 final 2-0 to Valencia in Gothenburg, and the 2018 Europa League final 3-0 to Atlético Madrid in Lyon, and won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2005.
Notable scorelines
Marseille's biggest recorded European win came in the UEFA Cup, 7-1 at home to US Luxembourg on 3 October 1973 in the first round second leg. In Champions League competition they beat CSKA Moscow 6-0 at home on 17 March 1993 during their winning campaign, and away from home they won 7-0 at Žilina in the Champions League group stage on 3 November 2010. Among heavy defeats, their worst home loss in Europe is 0-4 to Liverpool in the Champions League group stage on 11 December 2007, and their worst away loss is 0-6 at Köln in the UEFA Cup second round second leg on 6 November 1973; in Champions League play specifically they lost 5-1 away to Lazio in the second group stage on 14 March 2000.
European record
Marseille reached the European Cup final at the second attempt of the modern era, losing on penalties to Red Star Belgrade in 1991, then won the trophy outright in 1993 against AC Milan, before the bribery scandal cost them the following season's domestic title and a Champions League defence. They were UEFA Cup runners-up in 1999 against Parma and again in 2004 against Valencia, and won the 2005 Intertoto Cup.
In the 2022/23 Europa League, Marseille went out in the round of 16. In 2023/24 they went further: after coming through a knockout round play-off, they beat Villarreal 5-3 on aggregate in the round of 16, then eliminated Benfica in the quarter-finals, losing the first leg 2-1 in Lisbon before winning the second leg 1-0 in Marseille through a Faris Moumbagna goal to force a 2-2 aggregate draw and win 4-2 on penalties. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang finished the competition as its top scorer with ten goals. Marseille lost 1-1, 0-3 on aggregate to Atalanta in the semi-finals; Atalanta went on to win the final. Marseille also played in the 2024/25 Champions League and 2025/26 Champions League as part of a run of Ligue 1 top-two finishes, with the detail of those league-phase campaigns not established from the sources read here, before the 2025/26 fifth-place finish sent them into the 2026/27 Europa League.
Quotes
Bruno Génésio, on taking charge for the 2026/27 season, set out what he wanted from the squad: "I demand a proactive approach, with a high-pressing block, attacking principles, and a clear team and playing identity." On the scale of the job itself he said, "A victory here is not the same as victories in other clubs." After Marseille's third straight Ligue 1 defeat in September 2026, a 1-0 loss away to Rennes, he admitted the run was "a cause for concern," adding: "We committed way too many big errors tonight, collectively, first and foremost. No one at the club is stupid; I already warned that difficult moments would await us." On the transfer market that summer he said bluntly, "Three of four [more] players have to leave us for us to be able to register one or two arrivals."
Right now (2026/27)
Bruno Génésio is in his first season as head coach. Marseille's start to the Ligue 1 campaign has been poor: after four matches they had three points from one win and three defeats, having beaten Strasbourg 4-0 at home on 21 August 2026 before losing 2-0 away to Monaco on 30 August, 3-2 at home to Paris FC on 6 September, and 1-0 away to Rennes on 13 September, leaving them well down the table. The summer transfer window saw Adrien Rabiot arrive on a free transfer and Mason Greenwood, Elye Wahi, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Neal Maupay and Ismaël Koné already at the club from previous windows; the precise ins-and-outs ledger for the summer of 2026 was not established from the sources read here.
Marseille qualified for the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League on the strength of their fifth-place Ligue 1 finish in 2025/26 and are in the league phase, drawn against Beşiktaş, Olympiacos, Sturm Graz, Bayer Leverkusen, Levski Sofia, Celta Vigo, Celtic and Anderlecht across eight matches. Their opening fixture is away to Beşiktaş at the Tüpraş Stadium on Thursday 17 September 2026. Their match against Levski Sofia is scheduled for the Stade Vélodrome on Thursday 26 November 2026, not in mid-September as had been assumed; it falls in the fifth round of the league phase rather than the first.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympique_de_Marseille https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Olympique_de_Marseille_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympique_de_Marseille_seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023%E2%80%9324_UEFA_Europa_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_European_Cup_final https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_UEFA_Cup_final https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_UEFA_Cup_final https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_UEFA_Europa_League_final https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_football_bribery_scandal https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/clubs/52748--marseille/matches/ https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/match/2050132/ https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/match/2050132--marseille-vs-levski-sofia/matchinfo/ https://www.espn.com/soccer/odds/_/gameId/401915591 https://africasoccer.com/besiktas-v-marseille-europa-league-opener-brings-contrasting-fortunes/ https://ligue1.com/en/articles/l1_article_5675-26-27-preview-10-olympique-de-marseille https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2026/official-bruno-genesio-appointed-marseille-manager/ https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2026/bruno-genesio-agrees-two-year-marseille-contract/ https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2026/marseille-manager-bruno-genesio-three-of-four-more-players-have-to-leave-us-for-us-to-be-able-to-register-one-or-two-arrivals/ https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2026/bruno-genesio-admits-cause-for-concern-following-latest-marseille-defeat/ https://www.beinsports.com/en-us/soccer/ligue-1/articles/genesio-demands-proactive-approach-from-marseille-2026-08-20 https://www.om.fr/en/the-birth-and-the-first-trophies https://www.goal.com/en/lists/adrien-rabiot-set-join-mason-greenwood-marseille-ligue-1-advanced-talks-free-transfer-ex-juventus-star/bltfd3df164fd6066c3 https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/roberto-de-zerbis-marseille-sign-adrien-rabiot-and-make-a-statement-to-psg-france-and-the-rest-of-europe/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.