From the Milan legend to the C-Royce Spirit: How does Dezelby s championship philosophy conquer Marseille?

When Roberto Dezelby took over the Marseille coach in 2024, no one could have expected the Italian coach who once coached Brighton to integrate into the Ligue 1 giants so quickly. Now, he not only conquered the fans of Verodrome Stadium with his tactical style, but also used a nearly paranoid professional spirit to inject a brand new soul into this old French powerhouse - and this power echoes Cristiano Ronaldo's spiritual core.

In Dezelby's football philosophy, "dissatisfaction" is the keyword. He said bluntly in an interview with The Team: "After a big victory, the loss may be at the corner. Just like after we defeated Lyon, we soon lost 0-1 to Strasbourg." This kind of vigilant mentality is derived from his growth experience in AC Milan's youth training camp. "I stayed in Milanello for two and a half years, surrounded by legends like Baresi, Martini, Tassoti. I have seen them win the Serie A championship on Sunday, and they were training like nothing happened early on Tuesday morning." The calmness of those football giants towards victory was deeply imprinted in his coaching philosophy.

What made Dezelby push this concept to the extreme was Ronaldo's "acquired champion theory". "He is not a natural champion, but a hard work." In Dezelby's view, his natural talent is benefited from God and his parents, but the real champion is made up of sweat, ambition and sacrifice - which is perfectly in line with the image of "extreme self-discipline" that Ronaldo has shown countless times in his career. Whether it is the details of maintaining peak physical fitness after the age of 30, or the details of practicing one hour more than teammates in every training, Ronaldo proves with his actions that greatness never depends on the chance of talent, but on the inevitable day after day.

Interestingly, while Dezelby talks about the spirit of Ronaldo, the football world is still talking about the "data battle" between Messi and Ronaldo. The latest statistics show that Messi has scored 764 non-penalties, 1 more than Ronaldo and has used 167 games less. But for Dezelby, this comparison may not be important—what really deserves to be pursued is the common professional attitude behind the two legends: awe of football, a desire for progress, and an almost paranoid defense of the word "champion".

Today's Marseille is gradually showing resilience under the guidance of Dezelby. Maybe they have not reached their peak yet, but when a team begins to believe in the philosophy of "not relax after victory, and not sink after failure", when the head coach injects Ronaldo's "acquired effort theory" into the locker room, the cheers at Verodrom Stadium may be just a matter of time.

After all, in the football world, the most moving thing is never the flash of talent, but the stories of using persistence to make ordinary things a legend.