THE VITALS:

Team: Olympique de Marseille (Marseille)

Brand: Adidas

Era: 2003-04 (Used for the 2003-04 Ligue 1 season)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: EXCELLENT

At the time of writing, this shirt is 18 years old and I believe that you will hard pressed to find a better looked after version of this shirt than this article! The material shows very little wear in fact, the sole blemishes would be small bits of wear to the sponsor!

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Small

Pit to Pit Measurement: 19 inches

Shirt Length: 30 inches

Made by Adidas in their ‘ClimaLite’ range of shirts which they introduced in 2003; this shirt, as per the standard of fits in the early 2000’s, although this is a size small, this shirt is probably better suited to a size medium.

DESCRIPTION:

Following suit from the 2002-03 home shirt; Adidas continued to relegate the blue accents from the shirt, with blue now just being used for the Adidas 3-stripes down the arms, and the thin chevron on front of the pentagon collar. 9 Telecom replaced Khalifa Airways as the clubs main shirt sponsor in the domestic competitions, while Indesit was used for the European competitions. After the previous seasons exhilarating title chase; the 2003-04 season would be a mixed-bag as Alan Perrin was replaced by Jose Anigo midway through the season as OM had to settle to a 7^th place league finish while also reaching the UEFA Cup Final! This shirt would be worn most notably in stunning UEFA Cup progressions over: Liverpool, Inter Milan and Newcastle and the season would also be significant for the arrivals of: Fabien Barthez, Steve Marlet, Sylvain N'Diaye, Mido and Didier Drogba who lit up the Stade Velodrome in his one and only season with the club!

THE SEASON:

After 3 seasons of obscurity, Marseille would well and truly turn the corner on that tumultuous period of their history as Alain Perrin guided the club to a 3^rd place finish and a League Cup semi-final.

While the club were resigned to losing top-scorer - Ibrahima Bakayoko in the close season, there were a host of mouth-watering arrivals who would touch down at the Velodrome in the form of: Fabien Barthez, Steve Marlet, Sylvain N'Diaye, Mido and Didier Drogba!

After starting the new season with 9 wins and 5 defeats after 14 games to stay within touching distance of the league leaders – Monaco, a defeat in the first Classique of the season against Paris Saint Germain on 30/11/03 would send OM into tailspin in Ligue 1 for the rest of the season as they could only muster another 8 wins all season with Jose Anigo, after taking over from the deposed Alain Perrin, to guide Marseille to a disappointing 7^th place finish,

The domestic cup competitions were both mostly forgettable endeavours also as they crashed out of the Coupe de la Ligue in the Last 16 and out of the Coupe de France in the Round of 32.

Marseille would return to the UEFA Champions League Group Stage’s for the first time since the 1999-00 season; they would be drawn alongside -  FC Porto, Real Madrid and Partizan Belgrade and would finish in 3^rd place to continue their European journey in 2004, albeit in the UEFA Cup. While the domestic campaign may have been falling apart, in the UEFA Cup, Marseille were a force of nature! Eliminating Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, before overcoming – Liverpool, Inter Milan and Newcastle United to reach a first European Final since reaching the UEFA Cup Final in 1999. Unfortunately for ‘Les Phoceens’, they would be defeated 2-0 in the final by Valencia.

This season would also be the last in a Marseille shirt for: Daniel Van Buyten, Mathieu Flamini, Mido and Didier Drogba as they all found their way to Premier League in the 2004-05 season!

The notable players that season were:

Dimitry Sychev, Steve Marlet, Karim Dahou, Didier Drogba, Mido, Brahim Hemdani, Delfim, Fabio Celestini, Camel Meriem, Sylvain N'Diaye, Rudi Skácel, Štěpán Vachoušek, Daniel Van Buyten, Habib Beye, Sebastien Perez, David Sommeil, Abdoulaye Meite, Philippe Christanval, Mathieu Flamini, Manuel Dos Santos, Vedran Runje, Cedric Carasso, Fabien Barthez