Marcel Desailly: ‘I don’t know if I was a star, but I’m now a legend’

The World Cup winner has firm grip on the game’s pulse and praises those players taking on the right in his native France

“I love watching the Championship,” Marcel Desailly says. “Usually I don’t watch a full 90 minutes unless I’m working on a game in the studio. But I love to watch 90 minutes of Championship matches. The intensity is just incredible. And technically, they can really play.”

Perhaps this was not what you were expecting to hear from a winner of the Champions League with Marseille and Milan, the World Cup and European Championship with France, an imperious defender who spent most of his career at the very highest levels of the game. But in many ways Desailly has always been an instinctively counterintuitive figure. He left Serie A when it was the best league in the world and moved to Chelsea, who weren’t even the best club in London. He moved to Qatar in the mid-2000s, long before it became a global footballing powerhouse.

Marcel Desailly: ‘I don’t know if I was a star, but I’m now a legend’

Topics

Related

I don’t know who is going to win, but I know why Trump or Harris might lose

‘Was I drugged and raped? I’ll never know’: partners of accused share fears at Pelicot trial

This Halloween, I’m not buying candy for trick or treaters. I have better things to spend my money on. Am I a bad person?

Is 61 too old to take up gymnastics? Not if you’re planning on living to 100

‘Makes my heart beat faster’: why I Know Where I’m Going! is my feelgood movie

'It don't need to look like me': Wade cool with Heat's bizarre statue

Trump Jr.: I want people who 'don’t think they know better' than father in Cabinet

‘I don’t trust my financial guy.’ I’m 67 and trying to live on $2.2K-a-month Social Security. I have $500K with an adviser, who charges 2%, but last year the return was 26%. What’s my move?

‘Who do people like me turn to?’ I am 70 with absolutely no emergency or retirement savings. So now what?

More from The Guardian

ICC issues arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged Gaza war crimes

Ukraine claims Russia fired intercontinental ballistic missile at Dnipro

Police report details sexual assault allegations against Pete Hegseth

First close-up image of a star outside Milky Way shows supergiant in ‘cocoon’

Cop29 live: Saudi Arabia opposition to targeting of fossil fuels breaks into the open