When he arrived at Olympique de Marseille (OM) on February 18, 2026, the club was in 5th place in Ligue 1. Qualification for the Champions League was still within reach. Unfortunately, this objective slipped further away as the matches progressed.

Habib Bèye never managed to surpass his Italian predecessor, Roberto de Zerbi. Yesterday, Sunday, the final day of Ligue 1, Marseille were still in 5th place in the standings.

"It's a waste."

There is of course a Europa League qualification at stake, but for Medhi Benatia, former sporting director of OM, we cannot be satisfied with that at all, given the potential of the team.

“It’s a waste. If I had been signed at the beginning of the year to finish 3rd, I would have said no. We wanted to aim for at least 2nd place. We were ambitious, that’s normal. You have a team that is competitive, that is capable of doing good things. You have to always aim as high as possible… At OM, the least you can do is always give your all. In any case, this year, we didn’t do that, it’s a huge waste,” declared the former Moroccan international.

"We finished two points off the podium, that leaves you with quite a few regrets."

He believes the season was overall "catastrophic." "We tried to finish on a high note. It's worth what it's worth, but it's still a Europa League qualification. In such a disastrous season, finishing two points off the podium leaves you with a lot of regrets. It reflects what we produced this season. We were too inconsistent to hope for better," the former Juventus player summarized.

He believes that in September (2025), the club could have aimed for a top-three finish, but "there were matches where we didn't show up," Benatia lamented. He's thinking of the games against Nantes and Lorient.