A European champion at Atalanta. Now maybe it would be possible, but only a second line of the current Real Madrid. In the nineties, however, it happened with Franck Sauzée, a midfielder of Olympique Marseille who teamed up with Didier Deschamps who, for his part, will choose another destination for his Italian adventure, namely Juventus.
The story happened in 1993, when president Antonio Percassi wanted to raise the bar. He wants the big shot, hoping to fight for Europe, perhaps permanently after ending up there three times between the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties. Sauzée has just won the Champions League against Milan, with a goal from Boli, but Serie A is the apotheosis of European football. Percassi shells out 5 billion to Bernard Tapie’s OM to secure his signature. A decent goalscorer, given that in 1991-92 he scored twelve goals.
It is the great gift for the new coach, Francesco Guidolin, a young man on the launching pad. However, the midfield will never take off and everything will get worse very quickly. Alemao, contested for the coin that gave the Scudetto to Napoli years before, then Bigliardi and Valentini. The Frenchman doesn’t settle in and becomes one of the biggest duds in Nerazzurri history, with 16 games and one goal in the league, in a 4-1 defeat against Sampdoria. Surpassed, perhaps, only by Costinha.Franck Sauzée turns 58 today.