Can De Zerbi and Marseille rewrite their season in Europe?

“Before I slept little, now I don’t sleep at all,” Roberto De Zerbi sits down in front of the camera at Marseille’s training ground just following the international break. The Italian breaks out a smile, “Never Giving Up – that is a phrase that resonates a lot with me because my life has always been like this.”

‘Never Giving Up’ is the name of Olympique de Marseille’s self-made documentary series that has been following the club and De Zerbi since the beginning of last season. The sixth and final episode had been delayed.

That delay was caused by Marseille’s turbulent start to the season which saw a dressing room brawl between France international Adrien Rabiot and England U21’s Jonathan Rowe plunge the club into chaos after an opening day defeat to Stade Rennais.

“Iif you want to live peacefully then you shouldn’t come to Marseille, because here it is a different place,” De Zerbi added, in a small section at the end of the series recorded last weekend, just before OM’s historic trip to face Real Madrid in the Champions League. “You can already see that even after the first three games this season, it’s not a place like any other.”

When Olympique de Marseille walk out at the Santiago Bernabéu this Tuesday, they will do so to the tune of the Champions League anthem for the first time since the 2022-2023 season under Igor Tudor. Les Olympiens carry with them not just the weight of expectation of a volcanic city, but also the echoes of more than 60 years of European history.

For OM, Europe has never been a smooth ride. It began modestly in 1962 against Union Saint-Gilloise in the now-defunct Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, before blossoming into a passionate and often turbulent relationship. The early years brought humiliation, injustice, and fleeting glimpses of glory – Ajax’s Johan Cruyff-led side sweeping aside Josip Skoblar’s men in 1971 remains one of those formative scars.

Then came Bernard Tapie. With him arrived audacity, big names, and eventually glory (and controversy). The heartbreak of Benfica’s infamous “Vata handball” (1990) and the penalty shoot-out defeat to Red Star Belgrade (1991) gave way to redemption in 1993. Basile Boli’s header against Milan in Munich made Marseille the first French side to lift the European Cup. “À jamais les premiers” (Forever the first) would be the phrase echoed for the next 30 years, even in the face of Luis Enrique and Paris Saint-Germain when they completed their UCL triumph last summer.

Since 1993, the story of OM and Europe has been more about near-misses and nostalgia. Three UEFA Cup/Europa League finals (1999, 2004, 2018) all ended in defeat. European nights at the Vélodrome have still thrilled — Drogba dismantling Newcastle, Valbuena stunning Liverpool, Rolando breaking Salzburg hearts — but OM’s record is as patchy as it is emotional: 43 wins, 49 defeats in 110 Champions League fixtures.

De Zerbi returned Les Phocéens to Europe’s Premier competition in a tumultuous 2024-2025 campaign that severely tested the Italian’s tactical and emotional limits. If act one saw enough passion, tension, and drama on and off the pitch, act two would immediately follow up with an episode of “unprecedented violence,” as put by Marseille president Pablo Longoria. The following communications war between the Rabiot clan and the club finally saw Adrien Rabiot being sold to AC Milan on deadline day, with Rowe heading to Serie A side Bologna several days earlier.

“Jonathan is a good guy. What happened at OM is a dressing room incident that can happen anywhere. But it hasn’t changed the relationship I have with him,” said Rabiot on the incident, as both players featured against each other on their respective Serie A debut’s last weekend.

Meanwhile in Marseille, De Zerbi’s squad has gone through a huge makeover. “In August at Marseille, we’ve had what can happen in four or five years at another club. We have a lot of new players, we have to start again,” said De Zerbi at a press conference last weekend.

The final days of the transfer window saw a flurry of transfer activity. West Ham’s Emerson Palmieri was the first through the door, before Hammers teammate Nayef Aguerd quickly followed. Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Matt O’Riley then joined the club on loan, before the club announced the signing of 2018 World Cup winner Benjamin Pavard from Inter Milan.

During Marseille’s 4-0 drubbing of promoted side FC Lorient at the weekend, Matt O’Riley, Emerson, and the exciting Igor Paixao (signed from Feyenoord this summer) made their debuts for the club. Englishman Angel Gomes scored his first goal for the club with a stunning volley on the edge of the box – whilst Facundo Medina and Timothy Weah featured again for Les Olympiens. Clearly, De Zerbi possesses some exciting new elements this season that make his squad, on paper, superior to the one that clinched UCL qualification late last season.

“Today, it’s as if the season has started: we had a lot of players who arrived in recent days. It’s only the fourth matchday, but it feels like the first,” De Zerbi said this weekend following the Lorient game.

There will be no bigger test than facing Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid on Tuesday, only days before hosting Paris Saint-Germain in the first Classique clash of the season. “We must go to Madrid with the aim of achieving a good result, with humility but ambition. That is what the city and the club demand of us – we come to the Champions League as a club with history; but we must not forget where we come from.”GFFN | George Boxall