Marseilles (AFP)
Outspoken and a sense of humor, the globetrotter André Villas-Boas had everything to integrate into the Olympique de Marseille.
But her entire character ended up ending the romance in the confusion of a resignation.
"Sometimes you pay for your way of being if you say things as you mean them", launched the Portuguese during an interview with AFP last October.
Premonitory...
After a year and a half of highs, 2nd place and the return to the Champions League, and of lows, the failed C1 campaign and the current crisis of four straight losses, "AVB" ended up slamming the door, leaving the memory of a beloved coach, then whose relationship with the club environment was damaged.
Flamboyant side, "AVB" has regaled the followers of OM in a year and a half of tasty press conferences, by its sense of the formula and its authenticity, recognizing its faults in certain defeats or confirming the tracks transfer window, in a world less self-critical and usually much more secret football.
His "we did shit" after the European defeat to FC Porto (2-0), the club of his heart, has flourished.
His "big mouth" also opened when he disagreed with its president, Jacques-Henri Eyraud, when he dismissed the project Andoni Zubizarreta, sports director and friend of Villas-Boas.
- Flamethrower -
It took time to approach Bobby Robson, his neighbor, FC Porto coach, at 16, and ask him why the devil was not playing his idol, Domingos Paciência.
The English coach will set foot in the stirrup of the daring kid.
He did not disassemble either to go talk to the mutineers of La Commanderie, who attacked the OM training center on Saturday.
On the flamethrower side, AVB also got out of hand, like when he wanted to physically attack a journalist from Provence with a pen that was too acidic for his taste.
The Portuguese technician had apologized, but his image had been blurred by the incident.
He had shown the first signs of nervousness by losing his temper live on Téléfoot, contesting the criticisms of the game when OM had just won in Strasbourg (1-0), after a sad match, it is true .
Among his players, who had come forward to stay this summer, his relationship with Dimitri Payet, for example, has deteriorated this season.
AVB has however long protected "Dim", much worse this season.
This second, more difficult year, when OM were in the race for the title before Christmas, ended up getting the better of their nerves.
He gave in to some paranoid outbursts, looked for moles in his club and enemies on the outside, rivals eyeing his bench or media consultants.
- Back to Porto?
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The man with the "pretty face" Venetian blond was nevertheless happy in Marseille.
He loved the warmth of the supporters and loved to walk or ride a motorbike (his passion for motor sports) in the Montagne Saint-Victoire, near his residence.
"I feel very good here, I am emotionally attached to this club, to its history, its European impact, it is magnificent", he enthusiastically.
This great traveler is going to pack his bags.
From his native Porto, he traveled across Scotland and England for his training, trained in London (Chelsea and Tottenham), then from the mouth of the Néva (Zenit Saint-Petersburg) to that of the Yang-Tsé. Kiang (Shanghai SIPG).
He even left for the Virgin Islands at age 21, on a classified ad before Linkedin, to end up assistant to the coach!
He left a good memory on this Caribbean confetti, where he will return for his honeymoon with Joana, with whom he will have three children.
What a journey for this Porto nobleman Luis André of Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas, a "title given by the King of Portugal to my grandfather's grandfather in 1885", he told AFP.
Now, like the great Portuguese explorers, he should return to port, probably to run for the presidency of FC Porto in 2024, a club founded in particular by two uncles of his English grandmother, Margaret Kendall, who played in the very first team. Dragons!
© 2021 AFP