French Ligue 1 club Olympique de Marseille have officially announced the appointment of former Morocco international Medhi Benatia as their new sporting director.
The tall, strong former central defender had been working closely with the French club but his formal appointment was made public on Wednesday via social media platforms. The French-Moroccan is noted for starting out professionally at Marseille in 2006 until 2008 with loan spells at Tours and Lorient before completing his journey in French football with Clermont Foot between 2008 and 2010.
Benatia’s appointment is his first administrative role since retiring as a professional footballer and he was instrumental in the appointment of Italian trainer Roberto de Zerbi from Brighton.
The 36-year-old former defender joins Marseille with a rich playing career from top clubs like Udinese, Roma, Juventus, Bayern Munich as well as the Morocco national team after switching allegiance from France where he featured at the U-18 level.
The latter part of his career saw him feature for Qatari club Al Duhail before calling time on his career following a brief spell at Turkish outfit Fatih Karagumruk in 2021. Benatia retired from international duty in October 2019 with 66 caps and two goals coming through playing at the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
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