Villas-Boas named new Marseille head coach

Former Chelsea and Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas is the new head coach of Marseille.

The 41-year-old, who spent eight months in charge of the Blues before embarking on a season-and-a-half spell with Spurs, left Chinese club Shanghai SIPG in November 2017.

At Marseille he succeeds Rudi Garcia, on his way out of the Stade Velodrome after guiding OM to a fifth-placed finish in the recently concluded Ligue 1 campaign.

Marseille announced Villas-Boas’ appointment on Tuesday with a tweet reading: “Our new era has begun.”

The club’s American owner Frank McCourt told om.net: “We are delighted to hire a coach whose success is recognised at the highest level in Europe and worldwide.

“Villas-Boas’ philosophy and approach to the game aligns with what we want for OM and will help revitalise our project after a disappointing campaign.

“Our expectations are still great and we are making the necessary changes to achieve our goals.”

After his Tottenham reign ended in December 2013, Villas-Boas – a former assistant to Jose Mourinho at Porto, with whom he would later win the Europa League as manager – took control of Zenit St Petersburg.

In Russia he won the league and cup before taking in a year with Shanghai SIPG.

Villas-Boas took a break from football to compete in the 2018 Dakar Rally, but withdrew early after crashing his car during a stage in Peru.

FourFourTwo Staff

FourFourTwo was launched in 1994 on the back of a World Cup that England hadn’t even qualified for. It was an act of madness… but it somehow worked out. Our mission is to offer our intelligent, international audience access to the game’s biggest names, insightful analysis... and a bit of a giggle. We unashamedly love this game and we hope that our coverage reflects that.