Marseille coach Igor Tudor leaving after one season

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Marseille coach Igor Tudor is leaving the membership after only one season in cost.

Tudor advised a news convention on Thursday he was resigning for private {and professional} causes, and had not signed with a brand new membership.

Marseille, the one French workforce to win the Champions League again in 1993, has fallen effectively behind Paris Saint-Germain since its bitter rival was taken over by Qatari buyers in 2011.

But the membership loved a revival underneath Tudor. Before its remaining recreation at Ajaccio on Saturday, Marseille is assured to complete in third place in Ligue 1 behind PSG and Lens. That’s outdoors the automated Champions League locations, however Marseille can nonetheless make the Champions League by way of the third qualifying spherical of the match this summer time.

Tudor made his title as an imposing central defender with Juventus. The 45-year-old Croat had a modest observe file as coach earlier than becoming a member of Marseille, though he did effectively guiding a good Verona aspect into ninth place in Serie A final season.

“It was an honour to be part of this family, and to find supporters like you rarely find elsewhere,” Tudor mentioned by means of a translator. “I leave the club in a better situation than it was when I arrived, that makes me proud.”

Tudor changed Jorge Sampoli and received over the demanding Marseille followers by growing an attacking fashion of play based mostly on tempo, tempo and laborious press.

“He brought rigour, seriousness, a different mentality that we’re not used to in France,” Marseille midfielder Valentin Rongier mentioned. “That was his motto. He left his mark on the players.”