Abedi Pele assist won Olympic de Marseille, Champions League 30 years ago, May 26, 1993

30 years ago yesterday (26th May 1993), Olympique de Marseille became the first and only French team to win the Champions League.

Abedi Ayew Pele provided the assist for the only goal in the final against AC Milan.

The 1993 UEFA Champions League final was a football match between French club Marseille and Italian club Milan, played on 26 May 1993 at the Olympiastadion in Munich.

The final, which followed the second-ever UEFA Champions League group stage, saw Ivorian-born Marseille defender Basile Boli score the only goal of the match in the 43rd minute with a header to give l'OM their first European Cup title. It was the first time a French team had won the European Cup.

No other French side – apart from Monaco-based AS Monaco, who play in the French league system – would reach the final until Paris Saint-Germain in 2020.

Marseille and their club president Bernard Tapie would later be found to have been involved in a match-fixing scandal during the 1992–93 season (in which Marseille allegedly paid Valenciennes to lose a match), which saw them relegated to Division 2 and banned from participation in European football for the following season.



As the scandal affected only French league matches, Marseille's status as 1993 European champion was not affected.

The first Champions League final turned out to be the last game of Milan's highly accomplished but injury-prone Dutch forward Marco van Basten, who was 28 at the time; having been subbed off in the 86th minute due to fatigue and yet another ankle injury, he would spend the next two years in recovery before announcing his retirement in August 1995.