Marseille (AFP)
Olympique de Marseille offered its Portuguese coach André Villas-Boas a two-year contract extension, plus an optional one, the Marseille club announced in a statement on Tuesday, wishing to "re-establish the facts".
This optional year would be linked to the qualification of OM in the Champions League at the end of the 2023-2024 season.
If this proposal was accepted by the Portuguese technician, still linked for a season with Marseille, he could therefore remain five seasons in a row at the helm of the team which he has just brought back in C1 with a 2nd place in Ligue 1 at l end of this season, truncated due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, rumors of the Portuguese technician's departure have continued to swell since the announcement Thursday of the departure of Olympian sports director Andoni Zubizarreta. A separation decided "by mutual agreement" with the former Basque goalkeeper, according to OM.
Problem: Villas-Boas had always clearly expressed its support for "Zubi": "I came here, one for the size of the club, two for Andoni Zubizarreta. I already said that my future is intimately linked to its future", had launched "AVB" in January.
"For 20 years, only three coaches have benefited from a contractual commitment of 4 years or more: Didier Deschamps, Rudi Garcia (who left at the end of the 2018-1019 season, editor's note) and today André Villas-Boas, with this proposal ", underlines OM, property of the American Frank McCourt.
"This demonstrates all the confidence of the club in the technical qualities of André Villas-Boas with which Olympique de Marseille wishes to write a decisive page in its modern history", continues the press release.
If the president of OM, Jacques-Henri Eyraud, had affirmed Friday on RMC his hope that "AVB" remains at the head of the Olympic team still "for many years", neither he nor the club had until '' here specifies the duration of the extension of contract proposed to the former assistant of José Mourinho.
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