Le Classique

Le Classique (French pronunciation: [lə klasik], The Classic) is the rivalry between French professional football clubs Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Olympique de Marseille (OM). The duo are the two most successful clubs in French football, and the only French teams to have won major European trophies. Therefore, the fixture is the biggest rivalry in France.
PSG and OM were the dominant teams prior to the emergence of Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon) in the 2000s, and are the most followed French teams internationally. Both clubs are at or near the top of the French attendance lists each season. Their meetings during the 1970s gave little indication the two would become major adversaries. The newly formed Parisians were trying to assemble a competitive team, while the Olympians were Ligue 1 contenders.
The rivalry began in earnest in 1986 when PSG won their first championship and OM was bought by Bernard Tapie. By the end of the decade, PSG was fighting for the 1988–89 title against Tapie's Marseille. The accusations made by PSG president Francis Borelli against Tapie and OM for fixing matches during that season were a contributor to their growing rivalry.
In the 1990s, tensions between the two sides escalated. French TV channel Canal+ bought PSG in 1991 with the aim of breaking Marseille's hegemony but then agreed with Tapie to emphasize the animosity between them as a way to promote the league. With equivalent financial backing, PSG and OM became the main contenders in the title race. Both sides were less successful in the late 1990s and the 2000s but the rivalry remained strong. Since the 2010s, the matchup has been dominated by PSG, and the significant investment of their Qatari owners has created a wide gap between the clubs.
The term "Le Classique" is modelled after El Clásico, contested between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The Spanish press borrowed the term Clásico from South America, where most countries use it to label the biggest rivalries in the continent, such as the Superclásico between Boca Juniors and River Plate, and the Uruguayan Clásico between Nacional and Peñarol. The fixture is also known as "Le Classico", "Le Clasico", "Le Derby de France", "PSG/OM" or "OM/PSG".
Paris Saint-Germain were founded in 1970, and during that decade they were not at the same level as Olympique de Marseille, traditionally a giant of the French game. Formed in 1899, Marseille have been competing for trophies for most of their history and, for the first 87 years at least, were more concerned about games against Saint-Étienne or Bordeaux than trips to the capital. Today, the clash is considered France's biggest rivalry as well as one of the greatest in club football. The duo are French football's most successful clubs as well as the only two French sides to lift a major European trophy. They were also the undisputed top teams before the irruption of Lyon at the start of the 2000s. Nevertheless, they still are the two most popular French clubs in the country and abroad, ahead of Lyon. Both teams usually top the attendance lists every campaign as well.
Like all major rivalries, it has a historical, cultural and social importance that makes it more than just a football match. People in France see it as a battle between the two largest cities in France: Paris against Marseille, capital against province, north against south, the hub of political power against the working class and the aristocracy's club against the people's club. Ironically, though, PSG were born as a fan-owned team, while OM were founded by a circle of aristocratic gentlemen. In short, the seeds of the fiercest French rivalry yet were always there but they only began to grow from 1986 onwards. That year, PSG clinched their maiden championship and French businessman Bernard Tapie bought Marseille. Tapie proceeded to invest huge amounts of money in star signings such as Chris Waddle, Abedi Pelé, Jean-Pierre Papin, Basile Boli, Enzo Francescoli, Eric Cantona, Didier Deschamps and Marcel Desailly.
The clash increased in importance and ferocity when they went head to head for the 1988–89 title, during which PSG president Francis Borelli accused Tapie and OM of fixing matches. Between 1989 and 1992, the southerners won four successive Division 1 championships. They also finished runners-up in the 1990–91 European Cup before claiming the 1992–93 UEFA Champions League. Marseille fans have never let their PSG counterparts forget this triumph with the slogan "A jamais les premiers" (Forever First). All these successes, however, were also tainted by match-fixing allegations from title rivals PSG and Monaco as well as other clubs, adding further fuel to the rivalry.
Despite proving to be tough competitors, PSG were still no match for Marseille. This was the case until 1991 and the arrival of new owners Canal+, the biggest pay television station in France. The main reason behind the buyout was to revive interest in a Ligue 1 completely dominated by Marseille as well as lure more subscribers by assembling a team that could beat them. With Bordeaux a fading force, Bernard Tapie needed a new domestic rival to make the championship attractive again. Tapie encouraged Canal+ to help him promote the enmity between the two clubs to a confrontational level, and the rivalry was born. Backed by their own rich owner, PSG began to flex muscles in the transfer market with Tapie's Marseille, recruiting top talent like David Ginola, Youri Djorkaeff, George Weah and Raí. The league was now a two-horse race and they battled each other for the title in the early 1990s.
Between 1989 and 1998, PSG and OM picked up five league titles, four Coupe de France, two Coupe de la Ligue, a UEFA Champions League, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and reached two other European finals. Many experts argue that those Marseille (1989–1994) and PSG (1993–1998) sides were two of the greatest teams in the history of French football. The hype heightened tensions between supporters as well, and reports of fan violence became more frequent in the 1990s. Since then, the matchup has been marred with injuries and arrests.
The rivalry reached new heights during the 1992–93 French Division 1 campaign. PSG lost the title decider against OM and finished second. Shortly after, however, Tapie and Marseille were found guilty of match-fixing, in what became known as the French football bribery scandal. The French Football Federation stripped OM of their title and offered it to runners-up PSG, who refused it because club owners Canal+ thought that claiming the trophy would anger their subscribers back in Marseille. As a result, the 1992–93 title remains unattributed. Canal+ even refused letting PSG participate in next year's Champions League after UEFA excluded Marseille from the competition. Third-placed Monaco took the spot instead.
OM were then forcibly relegated to Ligue 2 in 1994 for lacking the necessary funds to continue among the elite. With Marseille out of the picture, PSG would go on to claim nine trophies during that decade. Most notably, they won their second league title in 1994 and their crowning glory, the 1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, becoming only the second French team to win a major European title (after OM), and the last one to date.
Marseille and their fans have since accused the Parisian political elite of plotting against them to crown PSG as the kings of French football. This feeling of injustice stems from the political dimension to the rivalry, which has been described by FIFA as pitting "the chosen ones of French football (the politically-favored PSG) against their enfants terribles (the unruly OM)." PSG have been indeed favored a few times. Club president Daniel Hechter was found guilty of running a ticketing scheme in 1977 and his replacement, Francis Borelli, incurred serious debts and financial irregularities in 1991. Unlike their arch-rivals, PSG were not relegated in either case; instead, they were bought by Canal+ with the specific goal of dethroning OM. Two decades later, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, a well-known supporter of PSG, which was then struggling financially, facilitated the club's purchase by Qatar Sports Investments.
Marseille quickly bounced back into the top flight in 1996 after two seasons in Ligue 2 but their new owner was not so keen to spend like Bernard Tapie. Likewise, PSG owners Canal+ slowly began to reduce their investment in the transfer market. Nonetheless, the rivalry remained just as intense. OM only lost twice to their northern rivals between September 1990 and February 2000, before Paris became the dominant force in the 2000s, during which they produced a spectacular run of eight consecutive wins between 2002 and 2004.
In spite of both laying claim to being France's biggest club, PSG and OM have rarely been at their best at the same time and, thus, have competed directly for titles only a few times. They first met in a cup final in the 2006 Coupe de France final where Paris defeated Marseille 2–1 to clinch the title. The duo have also never been drawn together in UEFA competitions. The closest they were of facing one another in Europe was in the 2008–09 edition of the UEFA Cup but were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Ukrainian teams Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk, thus preventing a semi-final matchup between them.
The balance briefly shifted again in favor of Marseille during the late 2000s and early 2010s, with the Olympians claiming the Ligue 1 and French League Cup double in 2010, ending their 17-year trophy drought, and then beating Paris in the 2010 Trophée des Champions on penalties. The matchup has turned into a one-sided affair with the arrival of wealthy owners Qatar Sports Investments to PSG in 2011. Many great players have since been part of PSG's all star-lineup that Ligue 1 had not seen after the early 1990s Marseille squads, including Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, Thiago Silva, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Edinson Cavani, Ángel Di María and Lionel Messi. Paris have monopolized French football, becoming the country's most successful club in history in terms of titles won.
In turn, OM have struggled to keep up. Trophy-less since the 2011–12 Coupe de la Ligue, they have occasionally threatened PSG's hegemony. Marseille went head-to-head against eventual champions Paris for the league crown in 2013 as both sides finished in the two top spots for the first time since the 1994 title race, which PSG also won. They had previously competed for the championship in 1989 and 1993, with OM overcoming second-placed Paris both times. PSG were also crowned champions ahead of Marseille in 2020 and 2022. Further, they clashed in the 2016 Coupe de France final and the 2020 Trophée des Champions, with PSG clinching both titles.
The Parisians have won 23 out of the 30 matches played since their takeover. On the other hand, the Olympians have defeated their arch-rivals just three times. In September 2020, Marseille's second win in nearly nine years sparked a new fire into the rivalry. OM midfielder Dimitri Payet mocked PSG's 2020 UEFA Champions League final defeat to Bayern Munich ahead of kickoff, leading to a massive brawl with PSG winger Neymar and Marseille defender Álvaro as protagonists.
• Total: Paris Saint-Germain with 23 higher finishes, Marseille with 22 higher finishes (out of 45 seasons with both clubs in Ligue 1).
Winning margin by 4 goals or more.
Six goals or more.
Five consecutive matches won or more.
Five consecutive matches unbeaten or more.
All-time highest attendances (PSG home, OM home and Neutral venue).
No player has ever scored a hat-trick in Le Classique.
Despite all of the bad blood, as many as 51 players have played for both clubs' first teams. Some of them have even made the round trip several times, including Jérôme Leroy, Xavier Gravelaine, Boubacar Sarr and Bruno Germain. When OM and PSG became Ligue 1's best of enemies in the early 1990s, transfers began to make headlines. Talented French youngster Jocelyn Angloma was the rivalry's first notorious deal between the two sides; he left Paris for Marseille in 1990. Managers have also crossed the divide, albeit without any of the drama. Only two coaches have been at the helm of both clubs: Lucien Leduc and Tomislav Ivić.
PSG made the next big move with the signings of French football prodigies Peter Luccin and Stéphane Dalmat from OM in 2000. After a convincing season in the south, the midfield duo responded positively to the sirens of the capital to compete in the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League. Marseille hit back with adored PSG captain Frédéric Déhu who, following a confrontation with manager Vahid Halilhodžić, decided to sign for OM when his contract expired in 2004. When his deal was revealed days before the 2004 Coupe de France final, the match became a nightmare for Déhu, who was constantly booed by PSG fans. After lifting the trophy, he disappeared into the dressing room in tears and refused to perform a lap of honor with his teammates.
That same summer, minutes before the end of the transfer window, fan favorite Fabrice Fiorèse joined Déhu at Marseille. Citing a conflict with Halilhodžić as the main reason for him leaving, Fiorèse also said that OM had always been the club of his dreams. Upon their return to the Parc des Princes, Déhu and Fiorèse were whistled and jeered by PSG supporters, who also displayed dozens of insulting banners, including one from the Kop of Boulogne aimed at Fiorèse that read "We have Jesus (along with a portrait of PSG defender Mario Yepes), you have Judas."
In similar fashion, beloved PSG Academy graduate Lorik Cana signed for Marseille in 2005 after losing his starting place under manager Laurent Fournier. Like Fiorèse before him, Cana declared that he was joining 'the club of my heart' in his official presentation. PSG fans welcomed him back with a flood of insults in 2006. Later that year, Modeste M'bami also signed with OM despite previously saying he would never play for them. In the next Classico in Paris, one banner read "Déhu, Fiorèse, Cana, M'bami, the list of whores keeps growing." PSG consoled themselves with Peguy Luyindula, who signed from Marseille in 2007 claiming to have fulfilled a lifelong ambition. Luyindula was the last direct transfer between the two sides to date. As part of the deal, it was agreed he would not make his debut in the following match against OM.
But Marseille had the last laugh so far. Idolized by fans during his stint in the capital, Argentine defender Gabriel Heinze told reporters in 2005 that he loved PSG and would only play for them if he ever went back to France. Four years later, however, with his return for the 2009–10 season almost a done deal, Heinze decided instead to sign for OM at the last minute. The Parisian fans welcomed him back to the Parc des Princes with insults, whistles and hostile banners, only for him to net Marseille's winning goal, becoming the second player, after Boubacar Sarr, to have scored for both clubs in the clash. Sarr, however, remains the only one to score for both teams as well as being transferred directly between them. The 'transfer war' has cooled down since then as Qatar-backed PSG have had the financial muscle to recruit any player in the world, while OM have had to settle for more modest targets.