US Marseille Endoume Catalans (France)

Union Sportive Marseille Endoume Catalans is a football club from the French city of Marseille that was formed in 1925. Endoume is a locality in the 7th arrondissement of Marseille, in the Bouches-du-Rhône district.

Catalans refers to Anse des Catalans which borders the Saint-Lambert district which is located just to the south of Endoume. The club was formed by three local men; Messrs Oliveri, Mazzela, and Cesario.

The club became the second largest club in the city behind Olympique with founding father M Mazzela becoming club President in 1942; with the club adopting its red and black colours a decade later.

Stade Di Giovanni

The first team played for many decades at the highest regional amateur levels. Francis Di Giovanni became President in 1972 before merging with FC Catalans, to form USMEC in 1979.

In 1984-85 Endoume were promoted from the seventh level Ligue de la Méditerranée Régional 2 but returned after a year in Régional 1; a division they returned to after regrouping and going up again in 1986-87.

The season also coincided with victory against AS Cannes who were a Division 1 side to reach the round of sixteen in the Coupe de France before bowing out 6-3 on aggregate to La Roche VF.

USMEC had their own stadium in the shadow of Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde in the 7th district of the city, which would in time become known as Stade Di Giovanni. However, success on the pitch meant other venues would need to be hired to stage higher level football.

Stade Le Cesne; part of the OM Campus was such a ground as Endoume which was utilised as the club reached the fourth tier Championnat de France National 2 for the 1988-89 campaign. Further success followed in 1989-90 as USMEC reached the National.

The team was coached by Léon Galli with Laurent Spinosi, Marseille striker Pierre Frigout and Marcel De Falco finished champion of group H in Division 4 and moved up to Division 3 group South for the 1990-1991 season.

On May 19, 1991, during a match at the Stade Vélodrome lost to Grenoble on the score of 2 goals to 0, Endoume narrowly missed the climb to Division 2 by finishing third behind the reserve of Montpellier HSC and FC Grenoble.

Despite running with a small budget, US Endoume Catalans ran 30 teams, including a majority of young people from 4 to 18 years old, but also girls' teams under 16 and seniors and Cécifoot teams for visually impaired and non-visually impaired seeing.

Rolland Courbis coached the team in National 1 during the 1991-1992 season After three seasons at this level, the Marseille club trained by Jean-Marc Pilorget descends in National 3 during the 1992-1993 season.

Francis Di Giovanni stepped down as president in 1994 with entrepreneur Daniel Guedj taking over; whose ambition with the help of José Anigo was to create a second professional club in Marseille.

The dream lasted just one season. Guedj resigned, with Di Giovanni stepping back up to the plate. In 1995-96 season saw a first ever encounter against Olympique de Marseille as the sides locked horns in the last 32 of the Coupe de France.

Nearly 10,000 fans attended the match at Stade Vélodrome which saw an Endoume side coached by Anigo go down 2-0. Di Giovanni passed away in December 1998 after the team had restored their National 2 status.

He had been pragmatic until his death reflecting that the clubs’ vocation was “to welcome within it the population of young people from the districts of Marseille, it also has to support a first team at a National level within its resources.”

Endoume dropped back down to National 3 in 1999-00 before returning to the fourth tier a couple of years later. Aside from one season lower down in 2004-05, the side remained in National 2; the top level of the French Amateur Championship until May 2007 under coach Galli.

Endoume finished 2nd in 2009-2010 in the sixth level Division of Honor championship after their relegation. Worse was to follow as USMEC went down to the regional Ligue de la Méditerranée Régional 2 in 2010-11.

Patrick Michelucci took over as President in 2013 with the team restoring its sixth tier spot at the end of the 2013-14 campaign. A runners-up place behind AS Cannes in 2016-17 saw promotion obtained to National 3 under coach Grégory Poirier.

The club also won their fourth Coupe de Provence. Promotion was won from National 3 in 2018-19 as the club moved their home games to Stade Roger Lebert. Fabrice Huart took over as coach in June 2019.

Endoume were in fifteenth place in the relegation places when the 2019-20 season was aborted owing to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Union Sportive Marseille Endoume Catalans will play in the Championnat National 2 in the 2019-20 season.

My visit

US Marseille Endoume Catalans 3 Olympique Marseille II 0 (Saturday 8^th February 2020) Championnat National 2 Group D (att: c150)

I’d planned a long overdue return to Marseille primarily for the Ligue 1 clash between Olympique and Toulouse and a look around the city. The announcement of this local derby with a 4pm kick-off would enable me at least to see some of the action.

It was a bit of a shame that they couldn’t make it a 3 o’clock start, as I’m sure it would have attracted several more fans who wanted to go to both games. Not to worry. This was better than nothing.

My day had gone very well after a 4.30am alarm call. My flight arrived on time and I was in good form despite being extremely cramped in the middle seat with a lady with high water retention occupying the aisle seat.

The bus cost €10 to Saint-Charles station from where I dropped my bag off at the left luggage for just €3. I took a stroll down the slope to La Canebière where the memories of my previous visit in October 2020 came flooding back.

I was a naive tourist back in those days, which led to an interesting experience which can be read about here along with the evening match and the rest of my day after the Endoume game.

With a one-day travel pass in hand I took the Metro from Réformés-Canebière down to Vieux Port, which looked majestic with the sun out and large crowds enjoying the vista. Within minutes I’d found the required bus stop for my intended ride.

The busy number 60 came along and took us up the steep hills to the magnificent Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde which overlooked the city. The clear skies offered some amazing views.

I’d visited back in 2000, but I took far more out of this call. An episode of Spender, a British TV police drama, had first alerted me to both the city and this highlight many years previously with its location filming. I wasn’t to be disappointed.

Stade Di Giovanni was a couple of hundred feet below, hemmed in by the hills, buildings and Boulevard Tellene. You wouldn’t want to have to fetch back a wild clearance from the bottom of the slope! Unfortunately, it was too restricted a site to stage higher grade football. What a location!

Back down by the old port I had time for a couple of pints while taking in some of the Everton v Crystal Palace game in the friendly Loch Ness just behind the waterfront. I was enjoying my time so much that I had pondered whether to give my first game the flick.

However, I didn’t know if I’d ever get another chance, so I stirred myself into action. The Metro required a change at Noailles before alighting at Rond Point du Prado where fans were congregating for the OM game.

With a bit of luck, I came across the number 44 bus just before it was about to set off on the route towards Collège Roy d'Espagne. I even got a seat at the rear next to a friendly smiling lady which enhanced my good mood.

The journey to the Floralia Rimet stop took about twenty minutes before a short walk along Rue Jules Rimet, named after a famous French football figure to the entrance of Stade Roger Lebert.

Admission was €6 but access was to just one part of the main side of the ground. The pitch was fenced in to save errant balls, as its artificial pitch was also used as a community facility. This meant that the views of the action weren’t ideal.

Most of the crowd congregated and sat on the open concrete steps, aside from a few freeloaders in another part of the complex and a smattering peering over the car park wall behind the goal. The scenic views of the distant hills were fantastic.

I’d never encountered such a quiet crowd before. There was hardly a murmur as the teams’ emerged from the changing rooms in the corner. The crowd seemed to be made up of friends and relatives of the players and aficionados meeting for a Saturday social.

The skill on the pitch was soon in evidence. The OM players naturally seemed a little more technically gifted, but the Endoume lads offered plenty of energy and endeavour. A few tasty challenges were going in with referee Matthieu Bonnetin brandishing the yellow card several times.

The OM number 3 Niels Nkounkou looked a quality layer to my eyes with his forays. USMEC were getting more into the game as the half progressed. I headed away shortly before the half time interval to ensure I didn’t miss the start of my main match.

I heard a muffled sound as I was approaching the bus stop, which turned out to be a fine individual run and shot across keeper Ahmadou Dia from Ismail Haddou to open the scoring. I was soon away and made it to the Orange Vélodrome with perfect timing.

I later found a link with all the goals from the division on YouTube, which can be looked at here to check out the action. In the second half a corner from Reda Fawzi curled straight into the far corner of the net before Ennys Hammoud was teed up in the final minute to round off the scoring.

The post match celebrations certainly seemed to show a very happy Endoume camp. I wasn’t sure what to expect before I went, but I thought it would have more crowd involvement. I think sometimes we can easily and wrongly compare relative levels of football in other countries to that in the UK.

How the local paper saw the game

My attitude is always that you’ll never know if you don’t go; whatever experience in life. Who knows? I may well have watched another French international on their way to the top. Whatever, it played part of my excellent day out in a city I was definitely glad to revisit.