EXCLUSIVE | Marseille’s Jonathan Rowe: ‘This club belongs in the Champions League.’ | OneFootball

The fight for Champions League football is as tight as ever going into the final two games of the Ligue 1 season. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Get French Football News, English winger Jonathan Rowe (22) sat down with our Marseille-based correspondent George Boxall ahead of Les Olympiens’ trip to Le Havre on Saturday evening.

After signing from Norwich City on a loan-to-buy deal last summer, the young Englishman’s career at Marseille has been marked by a mix of quality attacking highlights blended with prolonged periods of frustration on the sidelines.

Rowe is making up a growing number of English talent which is opting to look at Ligue 1 as a viable and attractive option to make a name for themselves. “There’s a lot more English players making the move over to France – I don’t know if they’re also enjoying it but I’m certainly enjoying my time here. It’s very similar in terms of physicality to England.”

Rowe admitted however that the trend of English players moving abroad was not the most important factor in his move to the Provence region, but the fact that manager Roberto De Zerbi had personally intervened in order to convince the player to move to the South of France.

“The big difference was Roberto De Zerbi calling me personally out of the blue. I was a bit taken aback by it, because it was the first time a manager has actually gone out of his way to call me and say that he wants me,” said the 22-year old on his decision to move abroad. “So it was exciting, I didn’t really take into account the fact right away that I would be moving to a whole new country and a whole new culture.”It’s not only the cultural change that Rowe had to get used to, but a new demanding style of play under the former Brighton & Hove Albion, Shakhtar and Sassuolo boss. “So far the coach has been a bit more intricate with the details: your body shape, how strong you go into games, how you think and stay focussed in a game. There’s a lot of information to take in – I wasn’t really used to that so at the start and it was hard for me to take in everything. But over time you get used to it.”

Rowe opens up on ‘difficult’ season at Marseille

The winger had opened his account with Marseille in the most spectacular fashion: curling a dramatic winner in the Olympico against Lyon in the fifth minute of added-time back in September. He would score against Angers a few weeks later, before a home loss to Auxerre saw his playing time severely decreased. It was not until a recent clash against Monaco (3-0) where the Englishman was once again picked to start, before he scored a sumptuous flick against Montpellier in the following 5-1 win over the league’s bottom side.

“Jonathan had a good start to the season. He also paid for the change in system and lost his way a bit on the pitch,” said Roberto De Zerbi in response to a question by Get French Football News at a recent press conference following the Montpellier game. “But he deserved to get more playing time. And now he’s making it difficult for me to choose. He can start, even up front. We need to support him. I would have liked him to do a little more, but maybe I was wrong not to play him sometimes.”It was a feeling shared by Rowe himself. “I respect that he openly came out and said that to everyone because it was difficult for me during that time to get back to the cameos I had at the start of the season. It was difficult because I felt disappointed a lot of the time. Seeing the team sheet every day and sometimes not even playing on the pitch was difficult for me.”

Moving to a back three with wing-backs saw limited game time for the Englishman in the middle of the season, but at the end of a run of Another tactical change saw OM revert to a back four after their training camp at Rome, where Rowe celebrated his 22nd birthday with his teammates in the five-star hotel Waldorf Astoria hotel. It could afford the Englishman another opportunity to feature in the final two games of the season.

“I’ve managed to turn it around – but the competition is really high here. I still believe in myself, and the manager is starting to see that again. I just look forward to seeing what can happen from here on out.”

Looking ahead to a potential Champions League qualification

And of course, all eyes at Marseille are fixed firmly on the prize after a moment of turbulence. The possibility of Champions League football at the Stade Vélodrome saw a glint of reverie in his eyes. “It is a beautiful thing to imagine I cannot lie to you. The ambiance would be crazy,” Rowe continued, with the French word ‘ambiance’ slipping into his English vocabulary (that is if anything a sign of any English speaker getting used to their surroundings in France).

“I think that’s where this club belongs, that’s where these players belong. I really believe we can finish this season strong and attack next season strong as well,” the mention of next season reveals an underlying sense that Jonathan Rowe still has his best performances ahead of him at the club.GFFN | George Boxall – Reporting from La Commanderie, Marseille.