When Jorge Sampaoli picked up his phone in February this year and found that it was Marseille president Jacques-Henri Eyraud on the other end of the line, his heart must have skipped a beat.
The Marseille hotseat vacated by Andre Villas-Boas was to be his. However difficult the job, it was the opportunity he had been waiting for and, more than that, it gave him the chance to once more follow in the footsteps of his managerial inspiration, Marcelo Bielsa.
For the two years prior to being handed the Marseille job, the Argentinian was coaching in Brazil and, for the most part, he looked happy. In so far as Sampaoli looks happy anywhere.
He still jittered up and down the touchline as his Santos and Atletico Mineiro teams played his wild brand of football-on-fast-forward during 2019 and 2020. He still barked orders at his players like a deranged dog and frequently collected yellow cards for abusing fourth officials.
But off the pitch, when he was photographed going about his business, he looked quietly content.
The post ‘El Loco 2’: Firebrand Sampaoli has found perfect home in Marseille appeared first on Football365.