Marseille are looking to reignite their season with a new coach on board.
The nine-time French champions appointed Habib Beye to replace Roberto De Zerbi on Wednesday following a bad patch of form that saw the club exit the Champions League and drop 12 points behind Ligue 1 leader Lens.
Beye, a former Senegal international who played for Marseille, will be in charge of Friday’s trip to Brest.
After leading Red Star to promotion to Ligue 2, Beye spent the last year and a half as the Rennes coach. The club sacked Beye this month.
Marseille have failed to win their past three league games, badly damaging their title hopes. The results, including a 5-0 mauling, at Paris Saint-Germain, have left fans fuming. The club hopes Beye, a disciplinarian advocating ball possession and a strong attacking identity, will produce a jolt.
Beye’s hiring “refocuses us on the challenges we still need to tackle between now and the end of the season,” Marseille owner Frank McCourt said.
Since McCourt bought Marseille in 2016, the former powerhouse has failed to find any form of stability in a succession of coaches and crises. They haven’t won the league title since 2010.
Marseille’s chaotic season took another twist on Tuesday when sporting director Medhi Benatia returned to the club two days after quitting.
He resigned on Sunday, just days after the departure of De Zerbi. But, in a statement, McCourt said Benatia had agreed to come back until the end of the season to “oversee all sporting activities.”
Benatia welcomed Beye’s hiring.
“The choice of Habib Beye as OM’s new coach is fully in line with our desire to recruit a coach with the leadership skills needed to take charge of a team that obviously needs to be re-motivated after a difficult period on the pitch,” Benatia said in a statement.
“From our very first discussions, he struck me as extremely committed and totally focused on the future, with clear objectives for everyone: to quickly get back to winning ways, aim for a place on the Ligue 1 podium and try to win the Coupe de France to give the people of Marseille a trophy.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
