José Anigo has known the best and the worst at OM. He is undoubtedly one of the most recognized people in Marseille history. As a player, coach, sporting director, Anigo has enjoyed many functions within the club.
Coming from a family of Spanish republicans who fled the dictator, Franco, Anigo was born on 15 April, 1961 in Marseille and grew up in the northern neighborhoods of the Provençal city. He moved to OM’s youth teams in the 1975-1976 season. As a defender, he played his first professional match at the Vélodrome on 24 August, 1979 against Lens on Matchday 5. But the season was very complicated and OM fell down to the second division.
FIRST MATCH IN FIRST TEAM
After the legal liquidation of the club in April 1981, the first team - then coached by Roland Gransart - draws from the youth teams. José Anigo, winner of the Gambardella Cup in 1979, then found himself playing in blue and white jersey with players like De Bono, Di Meco, Lopez, De Falco ... The famous Minots team which Anigo is part of. He evolves at the OM during the period called "Six Glorious". He knows the accession to the first division at the end of the 1983-1984 season, a season punctuated by a nice first place in D2. He played 207 matches and scored four goals during his Olympien period.
Anigo left La Canebière in 1987 to join Nimes but returned to his hometown in 1990 while joining the US Endoume-Catalans (1990-1993 and 1994-1996). He also played a season with Cassis (1993-1994). After hanging up his boots, he decided to embark on a coaching career at the US Endoume-Catalans (1995-1996) and then at the training center from 1997.
He was then interim coach of OM in the beginning of the 2001-2002 season before returning to the training center. He has one of his greatest successes in the 2003-2004 season. Alain Perrin was sacked and José Anigo succeeded him. Led by a Didier Drogba, Les Olympiens eliminated several super powers in the UEFA Cup (Liverpool, Inter Milan, Newcastle) and José Anigo managed to pull OM into the final. Anigo proved his worth as a coach.
But the following season was more complicated and Anigo resigned in November 2004 after mediocre results. He returned in the summer of 2005 to occupy the position of sporting director. He led an interesting recruitment strategy (Ribery, Niang, Mandanda, Cisse, Cana, Cheyrou ...) and OM lifted the French title in 2010 and the Coupe de la Ligue three times in a row (2010, 2011, 2012) . Anigo is no stranger to these successes.
On 7 December, 2013, Elie Baup was sacked and Anigo was appointed acting coach. With the arrival of Marcelo Bielsa the following season, he left his post of sporting director and became Director of International Development for the African continent. His adventure with OM ended on 28 October, 2016. Marking the beginning of the "OM Champions Project" with Frank McCourt, Anigo was removed from the club.
