INTERVIEW
He is undoubtedly the most emblematic coach of the Pape Diouf era at Olympique de Marseille. Eric Gerets, who arrived in autumn 2007 from Turkey and Galatasaray Istanbul, had a relationship with the Senegalese leader that went beyond purely footballing. "First he was my president and slowly he became one of my best friends. He always gave me carte blanche, he never got involved in my work, we saw each other three to four times a week when I was at the head of OM ", recalls the lion of Rekem at the microphone of Europe 1." There was loyalty. Even if we didn't call each other every week, when people something special between them, which is deep remains deep. "
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The two men will have known two seasons in common, before a painful separation. "If the owner of the club (Robert-Louis Dreyfus, at the time, had put pressure on the Belgian coach in the press, editor's note ) would have reacted a little differently, I would have stayed with great pleasure a few more years OM ", he explains to Europe 1." When I made my decision not to stay, I warned Pope, he said to me 'wait a while, the critics will stop if we continue to play at this level. "But since I had already made my decision, it was impossible. Once I make a decision, we must not regret it."
Joseph-Antoine Bell, the man who made Pape Diouf an agent
Joseph-Antoine Bell, ex-goalkeeper of the Girondins de Bordeaux and the Olympique de Marseille, who pushed Pape Diouf towards the profession of player agent, in the 80s, testifies to their "overlapping" stories: "J was the one who saw him as an agent. At the time, he couldn't see himself (...) At the time, it was complicated for an African guard to be And no one could also imagine that an agent is black, "he analyzes at Lionel Rosso's microphone. "I introduced him as my agent, but he never was, he was my friend, he never negotiated a contract for me."
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The ex-goalkeeper of the Indomitable Lions points to the common values he shared with Pape Diouf, "the word given, the dignity", and makes him "know how to say no". "My pride in this moment of extreme pain is that no one can say anything bad about him. He was righteous with people, he did me honor in that sense. I thought I knew about him, he did with others. He did what he said, never betraying them. "
"I lost two libraries, with Pape and Manu Dibango"
As for defender Basile Boli, emblematic player of OM between 1990 and 1994, he remembers Pape Diouf as a "literary in sport". "I lost two libraries, with Pope and with Manu Dibango. This is something very difficult for me," said the French international defender, known for his winning goal in the Champions League final against AC Milan, in 1993.