Marseille boss Deschamps reveals why he turned Liverpool coaching offer down

LONDON - Marseille boss Didier Deschamps has revealed that while he was immensely flattered to get an offer to be the coach of Liverpool, he had to turn it down because he still had a year on his Marseille contract left.

The former Juventus and Chelsea star said: “I was immensely flattered to receive Liverpool’s offer but there are two principal reasons that made me stay at Marseille.

“I thought about it for more than two seconds, I won’t lie to you. Believe me. It’s not every day Liverpool come knocking on your door. It was not an easy decision, I tell you, not easy. But I had given my word here,” the Sun quoted him, as saying.

“I had a year left on my contract and committed myself to staying, giving my promise to the president, the fans and the players. There were players who came here for me. Then Liverpool’s offer came two days before we started pre-season at the end of June. As I am a man of my word, I couldn’t do it,” he added.

He said: “At the same time we also had the controversy of the French team at the World Cup in South Africa and I couldn’t see myself adding to that by dropping Marseille in it two days before pre-season and saying ‘That’s it, I’m going to Liverpool’.”

Deschamps, the legendary skipper of France’s 1998 World Cup winners, is one of the most decorated players in history - and one of the most coveted bosses in Europe.

He took unfancied Monaco to the Champions League final where they lost to Jose Mourinho’s Porto.

Then he guided Juve back to Serie A in the most critical season of their history after they were relegated in 2006 because of their involvement in a match-fixing scandal.

At Marseille last year he won the French title in his first season - ending a 17-year hoodoo for France’s biggest club. (ANI)