Izuchukwu OkosiFrench Ligue 1 club Marseille have named former coach of the Ivorian national team Jean Louis Gasset as their new gaffer following the sacking of Gennaro Gattuso on Tuesday.
Gattuso, a fomer distinguished football player whilst at AC Milan has not had it particularly good in management and was similarly sacked at Valencia for not producing the goods.
Gattuso, 46, was appointed in September 2023 as the successor to Marcelino but has been fired for poor results as the club have not picked up a win in seven games across all competitions.
The Italian’s final match came on Sunday as Marseille lost 1-0 against Brest. He was in charge of the club for 24 matches.
The 1993 European champions wasted no time in finding a replacement and have gone for the signature of Gasset who was in charge of the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire but was sacked after the group stage despite qualifiying to the The round of 16 as one of the four third best finishers.
The Ivorians defeated Guinea Bissau 4-0 but lost to Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. They had to rely on Morocco’s win over Zambia to ma eit out of Group A.
The Ivorians started poorly in the tournament they hosted but turned things around from the knockout stage to emerge champions for the third time after a 2-1 win over favourites, Nigeria with Interim coach Emerse Fae in charge.
“Olympique de Marseille would like to particularly thank Gennaro and all of his staff for the flawless investment and great professionalism they have shown on a daily basis and wish them good luck for the future,” the French club said.
The 70-year-old wily coach thanked the club he affectionately called ‘legendary’
“It’s a huge honour for me to be joining this legendary club, Olympique de Marseille. I can’t wait to start working with this group to prepare for the upcoming fixtures and give the best of ourselves.”
Marseille are currently placed ninth in the Ligue 1 table.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
Your writing style is captivating.
Thank you so much. God bless.