Leonardo Balerdi bursts into laughter as he describes the moment a police van stopped in front of his car in Marseille, sirens blaring, only for four officers to jump out, shout and sing “Allez l’OM!” and drive off again. “It was just a normal day, but it was brilliant. I thought: OK, I’m good here now,” he says with a smile. Marseille is a city that lives and breathes for its football club. Yet that same volcanic passion can weigh as heavily as it lifts – and Balerdi has felt both sides of it.
In his early days at Marseille, a supporter staged a hunger strike outside the club’s training ground to protest against his continued presence in the team after he made mistakes in defeats to Paris Saint-Germain and Annecy. “I learned and grew a lot mentally during these years,” says the 26-year-old. “Whatever happened, I knew I couldn’t let things get to me, or at least not as much.”
The Argentinian joined the club in 2021 with little senior experience: five games for Boca Juniors, seven for Borussia Dortmund. “I didn’t have confidence in myself and I didn’t yet have the experience of senior football,” he says. “Marseille is a big club and big clubs expect immediate results. Maybe people didn’t see that reality.”
The learning curve was steep in his first two seasons. Bookings, mistakes and the constant trouble of a shoulder injury did not help. But the defender’s evolution accelerated under Igor Tudor. “He trusted me a lot,” says Balerdi. “He changed me mentally. That shift started with him.”
Tudor left the club in the summer of 2023 before a chaotic season in which Marcelino, Gennaro Gattuso and Jean-Louis Gasset passed through the revolving managerial door. With so much churn in the dugout, the team benefited from Balerdi’s leadership on the pitch. “By then I knew what it meant to play for Marseille,” he says. “Even with everything happening outside, I knew what I had to give the team: consistency and confidence for my teammates.
“I try to be an example, to do things properly,” he says of his style as captain. “I’m better one-to-one, giving players confidence. Because in the past, I needed moments like that myself. You have to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.”
The 2023-24 season was when he first encountered Roberto De Zerbi. Marseille faced Brighton twice in the Europa League and failed to win either game. “We didn’t touch the ball,” he says with a smile. Only six months later, the Italian arrived in Marseille. When De Zerbi took the job, he contacted Balerdi immediately. “The message and his words really moved me. I said to myself: This is going to be something special.”
Being a central defender for a De Zerbi side is unique. The demands of building high, playing one-touch and drawing pressure require a defender who practically sees the game as a midfielder. “He asked me to do things no other coach had,” Balerdi says. “We’re always focused on finding space, waiting for pressure to come and then finding the third man.”
De Zerbi’s intensity coalesces with the city of Marseille: passionate, uncompromising, but also with warmth and attention for those who would go to war for him. “What struck me was his passion for football,” said Balerdi. “He sees football in a different way than others. And beyond the pitch, you can see he tries to build a close relationship with his players.”
Those relationships were tested on opening day this season, when Ludovic Blas scored a 96th-minute winner for 10-man Rennes against Marseille. After the match, a dressing-room altercation occurred between Jonathan Rowe and Adrien Rabiot, both of whom were moved on.
“It was very hard for me because it didn’t just involve two teammates; it involved two friends who had to leave. These things happen when there’s ambition and passion,” Balerdi says. “But you have to take responsibility. After that match, we had seven or eight players arrive and, thanks to their quick adaptation, we really got our season started.”
Marseille signed the defenders Facundo Medina, CJ Egan-Riley, Emerson Palmieri and Benjamin Pavard. “These players have incredible qualities and a lot of experience,” says Balerdi, who played a key role in welcoming Pavard. “From the first training sessions, you could feel the mutual understanding. If one of us makes a mistake, we feel like we have each other’s back.”
After a difficult defeat on the opening day, Marseille embarked on a great run that included wins against Strasbourg, Ajax and PSG – the first time they had beaten their rivals at home in the league for 14 years. They are up to second in the Ligue 1 table, with much of their improvement due to their newfound defensive resilience.
Balerdi has been out for a few weeks with a calf injury but he is set to return for their Champions League match against Newcastle United. The timing matters. Marseille are pushing to save their European campaign and the defender is playing for something bigger this season: a place in Argentina’s squad for the World Cup.
“My objective is to go to the World Cup. It would be a dream to win something with the national team,” Balerdi says with conviction. “I’ve known Lionel Scaloni for a long time. I was in the under-20s at a tournament in Spain and since then I’ve always had a good relationship with him. He’s relaxed and doesn’t speak too much, but when he does, he’s precise.”
Competition at centre-back is fierce, but Balerdi’s performances over the last two seasons have put him into the conversation. Mention of the national team inevitably brings one name to mind: his international teammate Lionel Messi, who he faced in the Le Classique.
“You try not to think too much about who he is but there was one game before the 2022 World Cup when all my friends messaged me: ‘Do NOT injure Messi.’ I said: ‘Don’t say that!’ Playing against him was special but he played for PSG and I wanted to beat him. As a player, he’s something else. He’s like Diego Maradona. He put Argentina on the map. For our generation, Messi represents football: our football, our people, our neighbourhoods. We’ve been lucky to have Maradona and now Messi. You have to enjoy it while he’s still playing.”
Balerdi allows himself a small smile when entertaining the thought of sharing a dressing room with Messi next summer. But then he pauses, exhales and says: “I have to stay in the moment, otherwise my head will explode with everything else happening.”
The future will take care of itself. For Balerdi, there is only Marseille, the next match against Newcastle and the belief that everything else will follow. It’s a quiet self-assurance that comes from surviving the hardest moments this club – and city – can throw at you.
