Olympique de Marseille have officially announced the appointment of former defender Mehdi Benatia as their new Sporting Director.
The 36-year-old becomes one of the younger directors at a football club in Europe, having only retired from the professional game in December 2021.
Owned by Frank McCourt, with 5% also controlled by Margarita Louis-Dreyfus of the Louis-Dreyfus Group, Marseille are embarking upon yet another off-field revolution and plan, overseen by club president, Pablo Longoria.
Benatia will be in charge of the club’s transfer policy, which saw them spend big again in the recent summer transfer window on the likes of Iliman Ndiaye, Ismaila Sarr and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. It is Benatia’s first experience in the role.
The former centre-back began his youth career with Clairefontaine and then Guingamp before joining Marseille at the age of 16 and becoming a professional with the club two years later. He didn’t make a first-team appearance, though, being loaned out to Tours and Lorient before joining Clermont in Ligue 2 for two seasons in 2008.
After two seasons with Clermont, he moved to Italy, joining Udinese in Friuli, where he began to earn his reputation as one of the better centre-backs in Europe. He joined Roma for a fee of 13.5 million euros in the summer of 2013 before signing for German giants Bayern Munich for 26 million euros with the Bavarians reportedly fending off interest from the likes of Manchester City and Real Madrid.
Benatia eventually moved back to Italy after an underwhelming stint with Bayern, joining Juventus until 2019 when he moved to the Qatar Stars League signing for Al Duhail. He finished his career making six appearances in the 2021/22 Turkish Super Lig season with Fatih Karagumruk before retiring before the half-way stage of the campaign.
Marseille have had a tough start to the season with Marcelino sacked early on and replaced by Gennaro Gattuso. They currently sit in the bottom-half of the Ligue 1 table.
