THE VITALS:

Team: Olympique de Marseille (Marseille)

Brand: Adidas

Era: 2002-03 (Used for the 2002-03 Ligue 1 season)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: VERY GOOD

This shirt comes in as good a condition as you will find of these rare shirts today! The shirt material and felt sponsor are in fine condition, however, the two stand out blemishes are found firstly in the netting on the side panel, where there comes a tear at the back, and there is some light staining to consider also.

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Small

Pit to Pit Measurement: 19 inches

Shirt Length: 27.25 inches

This shirt, while providing great dimensions for a size small; a rarity for Adidas football shirts in this error, could still fit a size medium in my opinion.

DESCRIPTION:

While the 2001-02 season shirt relied on the heavy presence of blue accents and a collar; the 2002-03 effort was far more conservative, with blue being relegated to just the underlay of the side panels, the 3 stripes coming down the arms and the hoop collar. This allowed for the Khalifa Airways sponsorship motif to be spread even farther across the body of the shirt; altogether creating a supremely memorable shirt in the AdidasxMarseille pantheon! This would also be the final season’s shirt to feature the Khalifa Airways sponsor.

THE SEASON:

After the chaos that was the 2001-02 season, Alain Perrin was installed to restore stability to the club ahead of the 2002-03 season. The former Troyes manager got off to a losing start in Ligue, however, that was quickly put in the rear-view mirror, following a 1-0 win away against Monaco, and then a 1-1 draw with the champions Lyon. Between September 14^th and December 14^th; ‘OM’ would win 8 out of 15; the latter result, putting them top of Ligue 1 after 19 games! With just 4 points separating the top 7 teams, Marseille would go into 2003 still top, after a draw with Monaco. They would fall however, to Lyon as the season restarted in January, however, their strong form of 8 wins in their next 14 games    , placed them just 2 points behind Lyon with 3 games to spare, however, 2 defeats out of those 3 games, meant that Marseille would end the season in 3^rd place, finishing just 3 points behind the eventual champions Lyon. A fine season would also include a Coupe de la Ligue semi-final place, where only a 1-0 defeat to Monaco denied them a place in the final.

The notable players that season were:

Dimitry Sychev, Lamine Sakho, Fernandao, Karim Dahou, Cyril Chapuis, Ibrahima Bakayoko, Salomon Olembe, Brahim Hemdani, Delfim, Fabio Celestini, Fabien Camus, Daniel Van Buyten, Eduardo Tuzzio, Sebastien Perez, Abdoulaye Meite, Frank Leboeuf, Manuel Dos Santos, Vedran Runje, Cedric Carasso