May 26, 1993. Munich Olympic Stadium. Champions League final. 44th minute of play. On a corner from the right side taken by Abedi Pelé, Basile Boli takes the lead over his direct opponent, Frank Rijkaard, and places an uncrossed header which ends up in the back of Sebastiano Rossi’s net. A helmet shot that went down in history since it allowed Olympique de Marseille to overcome the terrible AC Milan and lift the big-eared cup, a first for a French club, the only one to date.
This goal, the tricolor defender does not owe it to chance. “Abedi (Pelé, Marseille midfielder) warned me before the game that as the Milanese were big, he would take corners at the near post. He asked me to be there. On the goal, I see him looking for me with his eyes like lasers and I say to myself ”I’m going to go there in case the ball arrives, because if I don’t go, he’s going to yell at me.” And the ball arrived…”, he explained to Figaro in 2013. However, this achievement almost never existed.
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Indeed, ten minutes before scoring this legendary goal, the “hero of Munich”, hit in the knee, could have given up his place. At least that was his intention. Jean-Pierre Bernès, the former Marseille general manager, present on the bench alongside Raymond Goethals that evening, recalled this episode for L’Équipe: “Basile begins to hold his knee, morally, that does not go well. Basil is a fighter. He just has to feel behind him that there is all his staff. […] I tell Raymond that with Bernard we have decided that he stays, and he tells me that he too prefers, ”he recalled. Before emphasizing that “the 44th minute exists because there is the 35th, where we decide that Basile does not go out”.
Looking back, Pascal Olmeta, replacing in this crazy Munich evening, believes that if his teammate asked to leave, it was “because he was afraid”. “Basile, he’s such a big teddy bear, so adorable, nice that he wouldn’t hurt a fly, that during the match, a little pain made him doubt. If there are no words to tell him “you stay, you play”… It’s true, he asked to go out, but for nothing, because he was afraid of doing something wrong, he said. – he explained to Figaro. Because it’s his kindness. Today you talk to him, he can only smile at you. He’s an amazing guy.”
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If the goal should never have seen the light of day, it is also because Olympique de Marseille should not have benefited from a corner. On the action on the right side which leads to this set piece, Paolo Maldini and Abedi Pelé are in a duel. In fact, it is… the Ghanaian who takes the ball out of bounds. But the referee of the meeting believes that it is the Italian. “We knew he wasn’t there, huh”, recognized, for L’Équipe, Jocelyn Angloma who started on the right side of the Marseille defense in this final. Far enough from the action, Éric Di Meco, he is not able to decide: “The corner, we see the Italians who say that it is not there, but I am so far from this action there…”, he indicated to the sports daily.
This error of assessment, the Phocaeans knew how to take advantage of it. Basile Boli’s header, just before half-time, was a real blow for the Rossoneri: “When there is the goal, it changes. The Italians are gone. Behind, you have an iron defense, you are good in the goals, ”remembered, for Le Figaro, Pascal Olmeta. Thirty years later, it is not this controversial corner that we remember, but indeed the goal of Basile Boli and the coronation of Marseille in C1.