Emperor of Football: Julien De Rocca

Seeing this massive upset—even by French Cup standards—happen to him, Deschamps was momentarily bewildered.

Even Marseille fans were bewildered. They had just won the Ligue 1 title in 2010, and now they were being told their full-strength squad couldn't beat a National league team?

Immediately after the match, French media L'Équipe pointed out that Deschamps hadn't given Quevilly-Rouen sufficient respect, with a starting lineup that was main strength but lacked targeted tactics, leading to lazy player attitudes.

Some commentators believed that Deschamps failed to adjust the defensive line timely during opponent counterattacks, especially lacking response to set-piece defensive vulnerabilities.

This was also the root cause of the final elimination.

Of course, fans mostly blamed the players' attitude problems, being relatively tolerant of Deschamps, considering the cup exit just an "isolated incident."

After all, Deschamps had once captained Marseille to defeat AC Milan, making them the first French team to win the Champions League.

Also, currently the only French Champions League winner.

Moreover, when Marseille was stripped of their 1993 league title and relegated due to match-fixing scandal, Deschamps chose to stay and help the team return to Ligue 1.

After becoming Marseille's coach, he ended their 18-year league title drought and was named Ligue 1 Coach of the Year.

With these honors, which fan would want to criticize him over this one mistake?

Marseille's top management was also unwilling to delve deeply into this matter. They wanted to keep Deschamps. But Deschamps consistently refused to renew his contract.

Currently, Deschamps' coaching contract with Marseille had only three months remaining, ending when the season finished in June.

The management was desperate for Deschamps to continue—how could they dare investigate his match defeat?

That evening, Zidane also publicly supported Deschamps, stating that "cup competitions have far more randomness than leagues, and this shouldn't be used to deny Deschamps' ability."

The two were core partners in the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship winning teams, with Deschamps as captain and Zidane as the attacking core.

They had a close personal relationship.

So aside from the media, no one really troubled Deschamps over this matter.

Instead, Deschamps himself clearly stated in his post-match interview that the result was "disappointing and unacceptable," admitting the team's performance was below expectations.

He mentioned: "We have no excuses. Our opponents showed more determination, while we lacked the proper attitude and focus."

"When facing lower-level teams in cup competitions, you must give 200% effort, but we clearly didn't do that. This is a betrayal of the club and the fans."

Julien turned off the television.

He didn't continue watching Deschamps' interview. He had thought Bastia might have a chance to face Marseille, but didn't expect to forget about this match that was considered a mark in Deschamps' coaching career.

This match was a famous upset example in French Cup history.

A third-tier team eliminating Marseille—a Ligue 1 champion and Champions League knockout stage level team.

It was indeed a massive upset.

Of course, in this year's French Cup quarter-finals, Marseille wasn't the only upset—Montpellier also lost to National league team GFC Ajaccio.

This GFC Ajaccio had no relation to the Ajaccio currently in Ligue 1—they were just both Corsican Island teams.

However, unlike Deschamps, Montpellier had essentially given up on this match.

They fielded a full reserve team, seemingly deliberately losing.

This season, Montpellier found themselves at the top of Ligue 1.

To go all-in for the Ligue 1 title, they directly abandoned the French Cup.

This meant that of the French Cup semi-finalists, only one was a Ligue 1 team: Lyon.

De Rocca found this result quite interesting.

Who could have imagined that the French Cup semi-finals would feature two National league teams?

Bastia would face Marseille's conquerors, Quevilly-Rouen, in early April.

If they could defeat them, the final would most likely be against Lyon.

Lyon had no major ambitions this season—the French Cup was their only realistic chance at a title, so they wouldn't underestimate opponents.

And Julien equally wanted to win the French Cup.

This was a chance to play in the Europa League next season!

He needed high-level matches to earn more victory points. Without a summer transfer, the Europa League was clearly his best platform.

But transfer?

Which team with European competition would he join that would also give him an absolute starting position?

Almost none.

Those elite clubs would at most consider him future development, but wouldn't immediately give him a core starting role.

Other players wouldn't be satisfied either.

So only when he became strong enough would transferring be the right choice.

Meanwhile, seeing the semi-final opponent was a National league team, Châtaigner joyfully told Hadzibegic: "We can start preparing for the final against Lyon early. You should study them well."

Hadzibegic didn't agree, instead replied, "Deschamps probably thought the same way. He might have already figured out how to contain Julien, but now they're already eliminated from the French Cup."

Châtaigner raised his hands in surrender, "Fine, fine, fine. I won't interfere with specific match matters—that's your authority. But in the upcoming Ligue 2 matches, I hope you can let Julien score more goals. The Ligue 2 Golden Boot should also increase his market value."

Hadzibegic couldn't help feeling annoyed—did Châtaigner think goals were something he could just order Julien to score?

But considering that since Julien's emergence, Châtaigner had almost completely stopped directly commanding the team, focusing entirely on Julien instead.

This finally allowed him to coach the team freely without someone constantly interfering during tactical decisions, dictating who could or couldn't play.

So now, he endured it!

"Fine."

Hadzibegic actually also craved the French Cup title. Currently in the league, with both Clermont and Reims losing, their lead had expanded to six points.

It was quite a good lead, and the remaining fixtures didn't include very strong opponents.

Ten league matches remaining, plus possibly two French Cup matches.

The final 12 matches of the season—if they won them all, they'd be double champions!

After the Bastia-Rennes match, there were only three days of rest.

They would then travel away to challenge Arles.

This was also a team that David might join after the season ended. Currently, David's agent was in contact with Arles.

David had quietly mentioned to Vincent a ridiculous operation by Arles.

"They told me that if I could bring Julien to Arles too, my salary could increase fivefold."

"Do I need that little salary boost? If I could decide which team Julien goes to, I wouldn't even recognize any commission under ten million."

"Haha!"

Both men laughed.

After laughing for a while, David sighed, "Who would have thought that in just a few months, we'd watch a guy with no team to play for become worth thirty million euros—the highest value in Ligue 2!"

________________________________________________________

Check out my patreon where you can read more chapters:

patreon.com/LorianFiction

Thanks for the support