2023-08-17 08:36:54
This Thursday morning, Marseille woke up hungover after the incredible elimination by Panathinaikos in the preliminary round of the Champions League. Very far from this gloomy atmosphere, Dimitri Payet, whom former president Jacques-Henri Eyraud had made sign “a lifetime contract” at OM, experienced a welcome worthy of a rock star when he landed at the Rio airport.
It was still five o’clock in the morning in Brazil but for several hours, thousands of excited supporters had gathered to welcome the former captain of OM who signed a two-year pre-contract (it will be validated after the visit medicine) with Vasco da Gama. Some had not slept all night. Songs, smoke bombs, giant flags, faces painted in blue, white, red, the colors of France… An atmosphere worthy of the Rio Carnival.
“Payet, Payet, Payet, eho, eho, eho, ohohoho! “, chanted crowd, taking up the melody of “Prefixo de Verao”, a classic of the carnival of Salvador de Bahia. “Payet has arrived! Today is like a public holiday, ”smiles a supporter.
Dimitri Payet walked towards them, climbed on a platform to greet them and put on a black jersey with a diagonal white stripe from his new team, flocked with his name, with the number 10. Wearing a bucket hat at the an effigy of the Força Jovem supporters group, he holds out his phone for a selfie with the thousands of people cheering him on.
“I am really happy to arrive, to receive all this fervor from the supporters and I am really looking forward to playing football,” Payet told the media present.
On a notebook, a supporter wrote in French “Payet je t’aime”. “It was the best choice he could have made. It’s 5 a.m., our team is penultimate in the championship, but we’re here, with all this fervor, ”launched another supporter quoted by AFP.
In the team based in Rio de Janeiro, currently penultimate in the Brazilian Championship, the ex-Marseillais will wear number 10, like local legends Nenê, Roberto Dinamite, Juninho Paulista, Bismarck or Edmundo.
“Vasco was the choice of football and not money. In terms of fervor and football, I couldn’t find better than Brazil and Vasco, so I’m happy,” he told RMC before leaving. With this triumphant welcome, he has already had a small glimpse of what he would expect.
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