PSG Captain Déhu Slammed the Door to Join OM After 20% Pay Cut

Frédéric Déhu lifted the 2004 Coupe de France with the PSG captain’s armband, but his departure to Marseille’s rival had already been made public two days earlier. This Saturday, the central defender celebrates his 54th birthday with one of the most extraordinary exits in Classique history as a backdrop.

Arriving at PSG in 2000 after an unsuccessful spell at FC Barcelona — where he played alongside Luis Figo and Rivaldo — Déhu made 167 appearances in Paris colours, scored 8 goals and was appointed captain by Vahid Halilhodzic for the 2003-2004 season, which ended with a second-place finish in Ligue 1 and a Coupe de France victory over Châteauroux (1-0, goal by Pedro Pauleta).

The trigger for his departure? A proposal from PSG’s management that came with a 20% salary cut. The 31-year-old defender, who wanted to secure one last lucrative contract, did not hesitate long. “It’s unfair, but I’m not responsible. It’s the club’s management that is. I was disrespected,” he said at the time, according to Le Parisien.

Halilhodzic, for his part, was hardly sparing of his departing captain: “PSG made him a proposal, he didn’t respond favourably. Marseille apparently offered him more. He made a more economic choice than a sporting one. He has to own it. You don’t buy respect with money.” A source close to PSG’s management drove the point home in the same newspaper: “Déhu has a very high opinion of himself and lacks humility. Unacceptable for the club’s leadership in a PSG that has made its image a priority.”

The saga did not end there. Fabrice Fiorèse made the same PSG-OM journey two months later, in an equally turbulent context. But neither Déhu nor Fiorèse were enough to fill the void left by Didier Drogba’s departure to Chelsea that summer, and OM finished the 2004-2005 season without a title.

Before his Paris years, Déhu had been crowned French champion in 1998 with RC Lens and earned his first France cap a month after the World Cup triumph, in a friendly match in Austria alongside Lilian Thuram, Bixente Lizarazu, Didier Deschamps, Zinédine Zidane and Thierry Henry.