Marseille (AFP)

What a metamorphosis! The spectacular redemption of Jordan Amavi symbolizes the confidence that currently carries Olympique de Marseille, in quest in Metz for a seventh consecutive victory in Ligue 1, Saturday (5.30 p.m.).

And the Velodrome stadium chanted: "A-ma-vi!" after the announcer gave the first name of the author of the equalizer against Bordeaux (3-1 final victory). Hard to believe that it was the same player who, for more than a year, had only been whistling.

The last time the rear-left scored was on January 8, 2018 against Valenciennes (1-0 ap) in the Coupe de France. He was then on the rise, had even been summoned in October 2017 to the French team, and OM were racing towards a European final.

Then the trajectory of the ex-Aston Villa player and his team slowly declined. Throughout the previous exercise, he was a good OM barometer: his year was hell, he was booed systematically at the Vélodrome from winter on.

At the start of the new season, still no left-back competitor on the horizon for the transfer window, Amavi started again. But he stays in the cellar.

He even touches "the bottom", by his own admission, when André Villas-Boas takes him out at the break against Rennes (1-1), September 29, where it is disastrous.

- "Small personal settings" -

"Coming out at halftime, I ask myself lots of questions, rewind Amavi, but I did not give up, I continued to work."

The coach did not give him an explanation that night. "He told me I was going out, we rather talked about it the next day," continues the Toulonnais.

But the very evening of this snub, "AVB" publicly defended his player and attacked the guilty supporters to whistle when the teams were announced. "This is persecution!" thunders Portuguese. "We kill a player!"

"When a coach defends a player like that, frankly, it's wonderful, thank the defender. He helped me a lot to find my level, and I give him back on the field."

For Villas-Boas, a fine manager, all the credit goes to the player, who was able to go out to climb the slope.

Always cash in front of the media, in front of which he recognized his wanderings, Amavi stopped speaking and changed things in his life, in the famous invisible preparation. "I made small personal adjustments, I made the necessary", he eludes.

- "Jordan has a strong character" -

His matches have improved, the "Vél '" started by stopping to whistle, and even dropped some applause on authoritarian defensive gestures, during the precious victory against Lille (2-1), the first of the current series of six which brought OM to 2nd place.

"He recovered well mentally, he worked and waited for his chance," recalls Villas-Boas.

His great friend in the group, Dimitri Payet, also publicly defended himself at the heart of the crisis. The noisy stigma of the Vélodrome, "I experienced it, recalls N. 10. It is always difficult to get through a period when one has the impression that one is playing at eleven, but that it was only him, only his fault. "

"You shouldn't give up," continues Payet. "But Jordan has a strong character."

The Reunion Islander, a great lodger in the group, has never stopped winnowing his friend, even at the heart of his crisis.

Amavi says: "In training, one day when things will go less well than usual, a player will throw me: + Oh, weren't you there this morning? + And Dim will say: + It's six months he's not here! + "

The joke made La Commanderie's press room laugh.

But Amavi responded to his accomplice on the left. "For + Dim +, it's going very well right now, I've never seen him defend so much."

He's better, and OM with him.

© 2019 AFP