Olympique Marseille coach Igor Tudor compared Ligue 1 and Serie A, explaining why he believes the former is a better league than the latter.
The 44-year-old Croatian coach spent 19 years of his playing career in Italy before retiring. After hanging up his boots, Tudor worked as the head coach of Udinese and Hellas Verona, as well as being Andrea Pirlo’s assistant at Juventus.
Tudor left Serie A last summer to become the Marseille coach, replacing Jorge Sampaoli. He’s shown positive things in France, averaging 1.95 points per match across 38 games total.
Speaking to L’Equipe, Tudor compared the two leagues and explained why he thinks Ligue 1 is better than Serie A.
“In France you have PSG, who have no equivalent in Italy, because today they’re above Inter or Juve. Then you have three or four teams that might have more quality in Italy than their French equivalents.
“But from sixth place to last place is stronger here. If you have Empoli v Strasbourg tomorrow, Strasbourg wins by a wide margin, Reims v Spezia, Reims wins by a wide margin.
“When you go to play Reims, you see three or four players you want to take with you, the same thing with Strasbourg. Whereas if I’m Inter and I play Empoli or Spezia, I don’t want anyone.
“There is a gap that you don’t find in France. The other fundamental difference is that in France there is much more pace. Because the type of players is different, here they are younger and more physical.
“In Italy intensity has nothing to do with it. The English prefer to buy players from Lorient and not Italy, it means that here there are elements that have the qualities to integrate into the best football.”
Despite Tudor’s belief, Serie A seems to be on the rise when looking at European results. Three of the four Italian participants in the Champions League this season qualified for the quarter-finals, whilst the only French representatives in the knock-out stages PSG were eliminated by Bayern Munich in the Round of 16.