With Vasco da Gama, his new club in Brazil, Dimitri Payet has found his football El Dorado. But the former French international has not forgotten his lifelong love, Olympique de Marseille. At the microphone of Téléfoot, the talented Guyanese spoke about his attachment to the Canebière club.
Pushed towards the exit at the end of last season after a year partially spent on the bench, Payet announced his departure from the club at a press conference, then bursting into tears. He then thought about retiring, which his wife advised him against: “Find yourself a club, go do what you love! You’re not ready to stop.” And in Vasco, he found an audience just waiting to send him love: “That’s what I needed. After my departure from OM, I don’t know if I could have recovered… The love that I received here, quickly, it put a balm in my heart, it lifted me up.
The adventure unfortunately did not end in an idyllic way, as he would have liked: “the plan was to end his career at the club. It’s very difficult, it still is. In no case did I want to clash with the club. At the time, Igor Tudor was not counting on him and Longoria had therefore shown him the exit. Despite everything, the one who has 492 matches in Ligue 1 affirms: “The love I have for OM will always be intact. And I will always be there at the service of Olympique de Marseille.”
Finally, the former savior of the Blues against Romania during Euro 2016 reaffirmed his attachment to OM: “The only thing I couldn’t do was stay in Ligue 1. Return to the Vélodrome or play against OM, I don’t think it would have been possible emotionally for me. A new declaration of love that Marseille supporters will appreciate.
