Michel Marella (born 28 September 1946) is a French former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He is known for playing a key part in

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

's successive promotions in 1973 and 1974 to make their way back to the Division 1.

Career

Early career and military service

Marella was born in

Grasse Grasse (; Provençal dialect, Provençal oc, Grassa in classical norm or in Mistralian norm ; traditional it, Grassa) is the only Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence- ...

, in the

Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes (; oc, Aups Maritims; it, Alpi Marittime, "Maritime Alps") is a department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the Italian border and Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, it ...

department of France. He played youth football with

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

, the club he would later rejoin as a pro. In 1964, at the age of 17, Marella stopped playing football. He began to play

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and

boules ''Boules'' () is a collective name for a wide range of games similar to bowls and bocce (In French: jeu or jeux, in Croatian: boćanje and in Italian: gioco or giochi) in which the objective is to throw or roll heavy balls (called in France, ...

instead, and then left for the army at the

Fort Carré :''See Stade du Fort Carré for the sports stadium.'' Fort Carré, often called the Fort Carré d'Antibes, is a 16th-century star-shaped fort of four arrow-head shaped Bastion, bastions that stands on a 26-meter high promontory in Antibes, Franc ...

Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of ...

, "the equivalent of

INSEP INSEP, the National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance (Institut national du sport, de l'expertise et de la performance), is a French training institute and center for excellence in sports that trains elite athletes. It is located on th ...

," according to him. With the army, he would briefly play for Antibes's football team, and then with US Issoire in the

Division d'Honneur Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

. He then left for

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. There, he had a Corsican friend who wanted him to come play at AS Banque de France, which he did from 1971 to 1972.

Paris Saint-Germain

In 1972,

Camille Choquier Camille Choquier (born 25 September 1941) is a French former professional football player and manager. Career During his career as a player, he played for Abbeville, Épinal, Stade Saint-Germain, and its successor, Paris Saint-Germain. He co ...

, who was then

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

(PSG), came to Marella to ask to come join him at PSG, when the club was in the Division 3 following the split with

Paris FC Paris Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris FC or simply PFC, is a French professional football club based in Paris, that competes in the Ligue 2, the second tier of French football. Paris FC play their home matches at the Stade Ch ...

(PFC). Choquier knew Marella previously, having seen him play in Cannes. Marella accepted the invitation, and he joined PSG that year. With Paris Saint-Germain, Marella was promoted to the Division 2 in his first season. They followed up with a successive promotion to the Division 1 in 1974 to bring the club back to the professional level it had prior to the split with Paris FC. Meanwhile, PFC suffered relegation to the Division 2. Marella played a large part in securing first division football, as he was one of the goal-scorers during PSG's 4–2 play-off victory over

Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a s ...

at the

Parc des Princes Parc des Princes () is an all-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Paris, France, in the south-west of the French capital, inside the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th arrondissement, near the Stade Jean-Bouin ...

in 1974. In an interview with PSG70, Marella said that he "played football while having a job on the side". When Louis Floch joined PSG on a professional contract, Marella was relegated to the bench; he was not on a pro contract. He would leave the club in 1975, having scored a total of 14 goals and made 58 appearances across three seasons.

Return to Cannes

Marella subsequently joined his former youth club Cannes in 1975. He stayed there one season in the Division 2, making 31 league appearances and scoring 9 league goals. Despite having a team capable of "playing for promotion" with players such as

Jean Baeza Jean Baeza (20 August 1942 – 21 February 2011) was a French professional footballer who played as a left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game an ...

Leif Eriksson Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental North ...

, and , Cannes played poorly in the second half of the season and did not achieve their objective.

Grasse

In 1977, Marella signed for his hometown club of

. Achieving promotion to the

Division 4 ''Division 4'' is an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the Nine Network between 1969 and 1975 for 301 episodes. Synopsis The series was one of the first dramas to follow up on the enormous success o ...

, he would retire there in 1982.

Personal life

While playing football at an amateur level, Marella was also an employee in a children's clothing manufacturing company called Katimini. Additionally, he was a

real estate agent A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...

in Grasse in for over 32 years.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marella, Michel 1946 births Living people People from Grasse French men's footballers Men's association football forwards FC Antibes players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players AS Cannes players RC Grasse players French Division 3 (1971–1993) players Ligue 2 players Ligue 1 players French Division 4 (1978–1993) players Footballers from Alpes-Maritimes