Question: Olympique de Marseille almost won the French League for the first time in how many years, having a remarkable run to third place, the most praised player was central defender Daniel Van Buyten, a Belgian former footballer who played as a centre back, nicknamed "Big Dan"?

Context articles: 2002–03 Olympique de Marseille season
Olympique de Marseille (women)
GS Consolat
2007 Coupe de France Final
Aymen Abdennour
Daniel Van Buyten
Laurent Merlin
Rolando (footballer)
Choc des Olympiques
1993 Intercontinental Cup

Olympique de Marseille almost won the French League for the first time in 11 years, having a remarkable run to third place, having only scored five goals more than it conceded.
 The most praised player was central defender Daniel Van Buyten, who was able to tighten up the defence, and also helping out with scoring several important goals.
 Without Marseille's goalscoring woes, it could have sustained a more serious title assault.
 Therefore it signed late-blooming starlet Didier Drogba from En Avant Guingamp, a move that was set to be among the best financial deals in the clubs' history.
Olympique de Marseille Féminin (] ; commonly referred to as Olympique de Marseille, Marseille, or simply l'OM ] , ] ) is a French women's football club based in Marseille.
 The club has been the female section of Olympique de Marseille since 2011.
Groupe sportif Consolat (sometimes referred to as Marseille Consolat) is a French amateur football club founded in 1964 and based in the Bouches-du-Rhone department of Marseille.
 The club is named after Consolat, a neighborhood located in La Calade, in the 15th arrondissement, north of Marseille.
 Founded in 1964 by the residents of Consolat, the club has been run by current club president Jean-Luc Mingallon since 1983.
 Mingallon pushed the team to success which has led to their promotion from the Division d’Honneur in 1999.
 In 2006, the club reached the national amateur level of football with its promotion to CFA2.
 This promotion sparked new derbies with the reserve team of Olympique de Marseille and US Endoume.
 The desire to become “the second club of Marseille” was one step closer with the promotion to the CFA in 2011.
 Consolat won the CFA title in 2014, earning promotion to the Championnat National, the third tier of French football.
 They nearly were promoted to Ligue 2 during the 2015-2016 season, falling short only by a single point behind Amiens SC.
 They again missed out on possible promotion in the following season, finishing behind division rivals Paris FC due only to goal differential.
The Coupe de France Final 2007 was a football match held at Stade de France, Saint-Denis on May 12, 2007, that saw FC Sochaux-Montbéliard defeat Olympique de Marseille in a penalty shoot out.
 After normal time and extra-time could not separate the two sides, the match was to be decided on penalty kicks.
 Toifilou Maoulida and Ronald Zubar' miss for Olympique de Marseille, whereas only FC Sochaux-Montbéliard's captain, Jérémie Bréchet missed for the winning team.
Aymen Abdennour (Arabic: أيمن عبد النور‎ ‎ ; born 6 August 1989) is a Tunisian professional footballer who plays as a central defender for French club Olympique de Marseille on loan from Valencia.
Daniel Van Buyten (] ; born 7 February 1978) is a Belgian former footballer who played as a centre back.
 Nicknamed "Big Dan", Van Buyten was known for his uncompromising style of play, exploiting both his physical strength and aerial ability.
Laurent Merlin (born 17 October 1984) is a French footballer who plays for Latina.
 A midfielder, he started his career as a youngster with the Olympique de Marseille reserve team, where he quickly progressed into the senior squad and earned two caps over two seasons with the seniors.
 Laurent was then snapped up by Corsica based French league team, AC Ajaccio.
 He got his first senior goal with the club before being loaned to LB Chateauroux and on his return was sold to Chivas USA.
Rolando Jorge Pires da Fonseca (born 31 August 1985), known simply as Rolando, is a Portuguese footballer who plays for French club Olympique de Marseille as a central defender.
The Choc des Olympiques ("Clash of the Olympics") is the name of the football local derby between two major teams in French football with "Olympique" in its names – Olympique Lyonnais and Olympique de Marseille.
 The French major football broadcaster Canal+ calls this game "Olympico" referring also to El Clásico.
 It specifically refers to individual matches between the teams.
 Unlike Le Classique, the rivalry has no bad blood within it and, instead, stems from the competitiveness of the each club's players, managers, supporters, and presidential hierarchy.
 The rivalry is often cited as being particularly important as both clubs are of high standard in French football and the championship is regularly decided between the two.
 Marseille and Lyon (along with Saint-Étienne and Paris Saint-Germain F.C.) are the only French clubs to have won the French first division four straight times with Marseille doing it on two occasions.
The 1993 Intercontinental Cup was a football match played on December 12, 1993, between A.C. Milan, runners-up of the 1992-93 UEFA Champions League, and São Paulo, winners of the 1993 Copa Libertadores.
 The match was played at the National Stadium in Tokyo.
 It was Milan's fifth appearance into the competition, after the victories in 1969, 1989, 1990 and the defeat in 1963, it was São Paulo's second appearance, after the victory in 1992.
 Olympique de Marseille, the winner of 1992-93 UEFA Champions League was not allowed to parcipiate, because of match-fixing scandal involving the club, which resulted in relegation to 2nd division of French league and ban from international club competitions including 1993-94 UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup.
 Because of it, AC Milan was allowed to join UEFA Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup.