The change is complete – Longoria leaves Marseille

The impression is that nothing really changed — that Olympique de Marseille failed to make real progress, despite flashes of brilliance that remained just that — flashes — while also experiencing steep declines during the six years Pablo Longoria spent at the Velodrome. His tenure in southern France came to an end as the club officially announced he would no longer serve as president. It was already known that this was gonna happen, but now it’s just official, because the two parties agreed on the conditions of his dismissal. After the crash in which Roberto De Zerbi quit his job, sporting director Medhi Benatia followed only to be persuaded by the owner Frank McCourt to stay until the end of the season. He was given more power than ever and personally chose Beye as the new coach. Longoria‘s powers were diminished and he was not happy about it and decided to leave his post.

The Spaniard arrived in August 2020 as sporting director, and just a year later moved into the president’s role. With him in charge, expectations were high — that the former European champions could at least become a serious challenger to Paris Saint-Germain. Instead, we saw Lille OSC break PSG’s dominance, and this season, for example, RC Lens has looked like a stronger competitor to the reigning Champions League winners than Marseille. Longoria’s tenure can be viewed from different angles, but the conclusion remains the same: the club did not progress in any meaningful way. To be fair, Marseille did reach two European semifinals — in 2022, losing to Feyenoord in the Conference League, and in 2024, being stopped by Atalanta in the Europa League. But the question remains — is that enough?

Another resignation in Marseille – the president is gone

Domestically, they were never close to winning the title — and won’t be this season either. They also failed to reach a single French Cup final. Competitively speaking, it simply wasn’t enough. One telling example of instability: during Longoria’s time, Marseille worked with as many as 11 different coaches. He inherited Andre Villas-Boas, but quickly clashed with him over transfers. After that came a carousel of managers — permanent and interim alike — including Jorge Sampaoli, Igor Tudor, Marcelino García Toral, Gennaro Gattuso, Jean-Louis Gasset, Roberto De Zerbi and Habib Beye.

Another striking detail is the sheer number of transfers. During Longoria’s presidency, Marseille completed a staggering 259 incoming and outgoing deals — a number that clearly reflects instability, lack of vision, and absence of continuity. In such conditions, meaningful progress was always unlikely. Now it remains to be seen whether things will improve under the new president, Alban Juster, who has been at the club for eight years, primarily focused on finances as general director.