Marseille meet Liverpool at The Stade Vélodrome in the UEFA Champions League tonight.
It’s a first meeting in over 17 years between one of French football’s biggest clubs and Liverpool, with both teams in need of a result to keep qualification hopes alive.
Ahead of tonight’s tie, we’ve remembered five of the best players to have represented both clubs.
Djimi Traore
Djimi Traore had quite the ride at Liverpool. The defender spent much of his time much-maligned on Merseyside, with a comical own goal in an FA Cup elimination at Burnley leading to a cruel chant about his rather awkward footwork.
But Traore departed Liverpool with cult status intact. The Mali international was a prominent part of the team that won the Champions League in 2005, playing the entire 120 minutes and making a crucial goal-line clearance to deny Andriy Shevchenko. Liverpool recovered from three goals down at half-time to beat AC Milan on penalties in Istanbul, with a twist of fate ensuring Traore was central to the comeback.
“Tactically-speaking, Rafael Benitez made a change at halftime and I was supposed to be subbed,” Traore recalled.
“We changed our formation and we went from a back four to a back three. But then in the last minute before we went back out, our physio discovered that our right back, Steve Finnan, was injured and wouldn’t be able to continue. So they put me back into the team.”
After leaving Liverpool in 2006, he bounced around various clubs before a single-season spell at Marseille in 2011-12, in which he lifted the Coupe de la Ligue.
Djibril Cisse
Liverpool broke their transfer record to sign Djibril Cisse in 2004, following the Frenchman’s prolific emergence at Auxerre. A change of manager and horrific broken leg derailed his debut season, though Cisse returned in time to feature in the club’s 2005 Champions League final win over AC Milan, scoring in the shootout success.
In his second season, Cisse scored 21 goals in 57 games, including an effort in the club’s FA Cup final win against West Ham in Cardiff. Despite that form, he was allowed to depart on loan for Marseille, following the signings of Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt.
He later joined Marseille permanently and ended his time Les Phocéens having scored 37 goals in just 78 games.
Boudewijn Zenden
Boudweijn Zenden signed for Liverpool on a free transfer from Middlesbrough in 2005, following two impressive campaigns at ‘Boro that included the club’s first-ever major trophy, lifting the League Cup.
The Dutch international was a valuable squad player during two seasons at Anfield, though injuries restricted his impact.
He joined Marseille as a free agent in 2007 after his Liverpool contract was not renewed. Two seasons in France saw Zenden score six times in 76 appearances before returning to the Premier League with Sunderland.
Fernando Morientes
Fernando Morientes scored plenty of goals during an illustrious career, though stops at Liverpool and Marseille were fairly forgettable.
Morientes had scored 100 goals for Real Madrid prior to his Premier League transfer, though struggled to find that form in England.
He scored just 12 goals in 61 games for the Reds and was cup-tied for their 2005 Champions League win. Trophy success arrived with FA Cup and UEFA Cup triumphs the following season, but Morientes returned to Spain with Valencia in 2007.
Having enjoyed a memorable loan spell at Monaco in 2003-04, Marseille agreed a deal to bring the veteran Spanish striker back to Ligue 1 in 2009. However, he scored just once in 19 appearances.
Mario Balotelli
Liverpool looked to replace one talented but controversial striker with another in 2014, as Mario Balotelli moved to Merseyside as Luis Suarez’s successor.
Suarez’s £75m exit for Barcelona left a huge void, one Balotelli was unable to fill. The enigmatic Italian endured a miserable time with the Reds, scoring just once in the Premier League during his sole season with the club.
A nomadic career continued post-Premier League, as Balotelli bounced between AC Milan, Nice, Marseille, Brescia and Monza, among others. His time at Marseille yielded eight goals in just 15 games, before rumours of a fallout saw his contract not renewed.
The internet was broken with this one…
…And we’ve got it from every angle. There’s only ☝️ @FinallyMario, and he’s an Olympien 👇 pic.twitter.com/AmX19lLs5d
— Olympique de Marseille 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 (@OM_English) March 4, 2019
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