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 lea ...

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) ** Smal ...

. He is known for playing a key part in

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

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

Division 1 Division 1 or Division One may refer to: Association football * Azadegan League, the second-tier professional football league in Iran * Brisbane Premier League Division 1, the second-tier professional football league in Brisbane, Queensland, Austr ...

Career

Early career and military service

Marella was born in

Grasse Grasse (; Provençal dialect, Provençal in classical norm or in Mistralian norm ; traditional ) is the only Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur Re ...

, in the

Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes (; ; ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the France–Italy border, Italian border and Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'A ...

department of France. He played youth football with

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) 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 Internatio ...

, 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 List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and

boules Boules (, ), or ''jeu de boules'', is a collective name for a wide range of games similar to bowls and bocce in which the objective is to throw or roll heavy balls as closely as possible to a small target ball, called the ''jack''. 'Boules' its ...

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 bastions that stands on a 26-meter high promontory in Antibes, France. Henry ...

Antibes Antibes (, , ; ) is a seaside city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera between Cannes and Nice; its cape, the Cap d'Antibes, along with Cap Ferrat in Saint-Jean-Ca ...

, "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 sport boarding school, training institute and center that trains elite athletes. It is located on the ...

," 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 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 of 10,000 to ...

. He then left for

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. 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 that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

(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 (French pronunciation: Help:IPA/French, aʁi futbol klœb, commonly referred to as Paris FC or simply PFC, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris, France. They will compete in Ligue ...

(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

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 , , ; ; or ; ) is a communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced ...

at the

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

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 Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary r ...

Leif Eriksson Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of Ice ...

, 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 broadcast by the Nine Network and created by Crawford Productions airing between 1969 and 1975 for 301 episodes. Synopsis The series was one of the first to follow up on the enor ...

, 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 Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent 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 age ...

in Grasse in for over 32 years.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marella, Michel 1946 births Living people Footballers from Grasse French men's footballers Men's association football forwards FC Antibes players Paris Saint-Germain FC 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 20th-century French sportsmen