Sorry, it’s too late to go up. The “Leo Balerdi” train is now full a few hours before the Europa League semi-final first leg between Olympique de Marseille and Atalanta Bergamo this Thursday evening (9 p.m.). “There is no more room, the last arrivals went up just before the penalties against Benfica,” warns Constant Wicherek. This former Foot Mercato journalist has taken control of the locomotive since the Argentinian defender was loaned to OM from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2020.
Four years of driving an empty train, between gross fouls, red cards, premature exits under the whistles and conceded goals. But this season of Leo Balerdi finally proves him right, to the point of seeing travelers hastily stamping their tickets in recent weeks. “His performances are finally at the level of what we expect of him. He has asserted himself because he has grown, because he plays in a stable central hinge, because he has gained confidence and maturity. Six months ago everyone wanted to see him leave, and today everyone would be sad if he left OM,” summarizes the journalist.
“He will become a great defender”
Established 36 times out of 47 matches played by Olympique de Marseille, Leo Balerdi is ahead of his two other defense friends, Chancel Mbemba (2,984 minutes) and Samuel Gigot (2,595) in terms of time spent on the field, with 3,211 minutes. To the great pleasure of Diego Mazzilli, the recruiter who brought him to Boca Junior, his training club.
“ The fact of racking up the minutes with the support of his coach and his teammates does him good. He is well surrounded and also feels the fervor of the supporters. Being a core part of the team makes him bigger and gives him confidence. He is a very intelligent footballer, he believed in himself and improved day by day in the face of adversity to become very strong. He showed a lot of courage. » »
Consistency finally found, in a season which is not easy, with three different coaches. Who each time trusted him, like Jean-Louis Gasset: “Balerdi has everything you need. He still needs to progress on small details, we are working on millimeters with him. But in the state of mind, the gift of oneself… He has everything you need and he will become a great defender,” explained the Marseille technician before the double confrontation against Benfica Lisbon.
Almost easy to predict a great future for him by seeing the season he is having with Olympique de Marseille and the importance he is taking on in defense. But another technician had made the same bet, much earlier: André Villas-Boas, who brought him on loan from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2020, when he hardly played in North Rhine-Westphalia: “ I think that Balerdi will become one of the best central defenders in Europe in the years to come, because he has all the qualities, and little by little he will assert himself with us”, bet the now president of FC Porto, in October 2020.
A prediction shared with Loulou, a South Bend subscriber for several seasons. “For years I have been taken for a clown, and made fun of, when I say that Balerdi will be a great defender in a top club in a few years,” he explains, a little vengefully.
After Annecy, “I told myself we were going to lose him”
But by his own admission, even he began to doubt his little protégé. It was an evening in March 2023 and the terrible disillusionment of elimination from the Coupe de France by Annecy, after the last shot on goal missed by Balerdi: “I really told myself that it was one too many. It’s not the biggest mistake he made, he was all shaky and not very good. But what’s going on in his face at that moment! There I told myself that we were going to lose him. »
A missed shot on goal happens. But Balerdi has never been spared since his (too) many youthful mistakes. Like when André Villas Boas took him out of the group after his red card and a penalty offered to FC Porto (3-0 defeat), during the group stage of the Champions League in 2020/2021. Or when he was taken off in the 28th minute of the match against Lille by Igor Tudor during the 2022/2023 season. And two weeks after the disappointment in Annecy, Leo Balerdi was sent off under the whistles of the Vélodrome after less than half an hour played against Strasbourg.
To the point of seeing a pseudo-supporter begin a hunger strike in front of the commandery to demand his departure. “I’m used to whistles. When they come from opposing fans, that’s part of your job. But they really touch you when they come from your own supporters. These are bad times, I’m working to make sure this doesn’t happen again. But I’m happy to have gone through these moments, I think it helped me a lot on and off the pitch,” Balerdi confided to Provence at the start of the season.
The mental
Despite these difficult moments and doubts, the Argentinian, now 25 years old, never hid in a context as hot as that of Marseille. Whether on the collective, without ever drying out the mixed zone when many players preferred to dodge it in this difficult season. Or on his individual mistakes, in interviews. A character trait that he has always had, or almost, as recalled by the one who spotted him at the age of 13 among 500 other kids near Villa Mercedes, his hometown in Argentina. “I didn’t understand the criticism, even though it happens in world football. Many idols have been criticized at some point. But Leo is a very mentally strong boy who, in adversity, brings out that little extra that he needs.”
Libero more than a stopper
Above all, Leo Balerdi is unlike any other recent Olympique de Marseille defender like Nkoulou, Rami, Caleta Carr or Mbemba, who are more stoppers, when Balerdi falls into the libero category. A bit in the style of Laurent Blanc. Qualities that he inherited from his role as a midfielder, before being moved back a notch. Here too without it being obvious.
“He arrived at Boca in the 1999 category which was very strong. Every day he showed a higher level and constant growth. Then came the position change, and he wanted nothing to do with the move from midfielder to center back. But he was smart and listened to me. He overcame that denial that he had, and once he embraced that change, he became one of the best footballers I’ve seen in the club’s youth divisions, already playing in the reserves. From that moment on, people came to see him, then his first team debut took place immediately,” relates Diego Mazzalli, who is still in contact with his little protégé.
Balerdi now has a choice
If his departure from Argentina was a little hasty, “a difficult decision”, when he had only played five matches with the Boca Junior first team before arriving in Dortmund, and his integration in Germany was complicated , Leo Balerdi finally wins in Europe, in Marseille. “Now I realize that in Marseille, they like him a lot. It makes me very happy, it’s well deserved to never give up,” relishes the one who started it.
Deserved, like now having a choice. That of signing up for the long term with OM while Longoria offered him a salary increase to make it the heart of the Marseille project, according to theTeam. Or to go to a big European club, Atlético de Madrid for example, which tried to recruit him during the last winter transfer window. Permanently recruited around 10 million in the summer of 2021, Leo Balerdi could leave the club this summer, he who has a market value estimated around 30 million euros. “I would like there to be another year. He has always kept his mouth shut, has always been in a very good state of mind so I hope that the stadium will give him a nice gift before his departure,” hopes Loulou. And he, offer them a Europa League final.