Florian Thauvin dreams of returning to ‘special club’ Marseille but keeps Ligue 1 options open

Florian Thauvin (31) has made no secret of his desire to return to Olympique de Marseille, the forward spent eight years of his career in La Provence and would like to return for a ‘Last Dance’ with the club, despite how his last stay ended. 

In his second stint at Marseille, Thauvin found success becoming a prolific goal scorer reaching over 15 goals a campaign for three seasons running from 2016/17 to 2018/19, and even became a World Cup winner in 2018 with France. 

Despite this, his time at Marseille came to a bitter end when the club refused to offer him a contract extension, and the forward left Europe to join Tigres UANL in 2021. In 2023, four weeks into the Liga MX campaign, Thauvin’s contract was terminated and the Frenchman returned to Europe with Udinese. 

Speaking to TNT Sports , Thauvin reiterated his desire to return to Ligue 1, preferably with a third stint in the south of the country. “ Marseille is a special club. Even players who only stay there for a year inevitably get attached to it. Simply because experience something strong there. ”

He continues, “ I spent eight years of my career there. Marseille is love, that’s how it is. When you go to Marseille, something different happens. I’ve always been attached to Marseille and I always will be. ”

Despite this Thauvin will keep his options open and won’t close the door on another French team coming in for him, “ I’ll be very honest and say what I think: I had that vision too [that I would only return to France to play for Marseille]. But it changed. Why? Because when you start your career and you’re performing well, everyone reaches out to you. But the day you’re a little less successful, or you go through a tough situation, everyone turns their back on