Adrien Rabiot's dismissal from OM is a "fair decision" for coach Roberto De Zerbi
Olympique de Marseille (OM) coach Roberto De Zerbi's traditional pre-match press conference on Friday, August 22, was highly anticipated. Not so much to gain insight into the Marseille club's clash with Paris FC the following day at 5 p.m. at the Stade Vélodrome as part of the second round of the French football championship, but to get his thoughts on the "Adrien Rabiot affair," which has been rocking the club for several days.
French international and Englishman Jonathan Rowe were placed on OM's transfer list on August 19, following a fight in the locker room at Roazhon Park in Rennes on Friday, August 15, after the 1-0 defeat at the opening of the Ligue 1 season. An incident that OM president Pablo Longoria – who was not present – described as "extremely violent." Even before the first questions from journalists, Roberto De Zerbi returned to the subject.
Clearing the way for the departure of the two players in question is "a forced choice" as much as a "fair decision," the coach explained. "In any workplace, if two employees fight, like in a pub, with a teammate on the ground [Darryl Bakola, who suffered a collapse] who had lost consciousness, what should the employer do? Either suspension or dismissal," the Italian said.
"It was a fight like I've never seen in all my years of football. For the first time in my career, I didn't know what to say or what to do," he said. stating that the club's bodyguards had to intervene to separate Adrien Rabiot and Jonathan Rowe. "Normally, they have to protect us from others, not from ourselves."
Their exclusion from the group, decided in the wake of the altercation and which resulted in an absence from training the following Monday, was supposed to be "temporary" , he also said, "while waiting to see if the two felt sincere regrets" . If the transfer of Jonathan Rowe was envisaged well before the event of August 15, that of Adrien Rabiot, who distinguished himself in 2024-2025 for his first season with the club, is on the other hand a surprise.
In recent months, Marseille's management has been full of praise for the player. "He's someone special, and I would say he's the best man I've had in a locker room during my entire career. He's an example of work, he's an example like no other," Pablo Longoria said of him in a documentary released by the team in the summer. "Adrien remains a good boy," Roberto De Zerbi repeated on Friday.
“Difficult to manage for everyone”"Things got out of hand, not because of OM, but because of [the midfielder's] entourage ," the Italian continued on Friday, in a thinly veiled accusation of Véronique Rabiot, his mother and agent. "That's how you end up with a definitive breakup. That's not what [Pablo] Longoria and [Medhi] Benatia [the club's football director] wanted. "
