A Champions League winner now looks unrecognisable and plays the guitar in an Oasis tribute band after a glittering football career that saw him lift club football’s greatest prize
A Champions League winner is now unrecognisable and plays guitar in an Oasis tribute band.
Former Marseille star Eric Di Meco enjoyed a glittering career as a five-time French top-flight champion, a Coupe de France winner and a member of Les Olympiens’ triumphant 1993 European Cup side. However, the France international left-back’s life has taken a very different route since hanging up his boots.
Di Meco retired in 1998 at Monaco, where he won his fifth league title in 1997 after scooping four titles at Marseille. But still hungry to perform in front of crowds, the Frenchman took up the guitar and now stars in an Oasis tribute band called Osiris.
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Speaking to The Athletic, Di Meco revealed he fell in love with the Manchester band during Euro 1996 in England. “It’s funny because in August 1996, Oasis played at Knebworth.
“I was in England for Euro 96 a couple of months earlier and I couldn’t go, but those shows became legendary in British music history.
“The demand for tickets was unbelievable even back then. For me, Oasis represent England in the 1990s.
“There was also the rivalry with Blur: Oasis represented the working-class northern city, while Blur were the London band. I loved that side of it.
“England has always had great rivalries in music — The Beatles and The Stones, for example.
“What I also loved about Oasis was that they were always huge football fans, huge Manchester City fans, even when City were in the Second Division (the third tier of English football).”
Di Meco also claims the likes of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, The Police and Pearl Jam as his favourite bands. And has a ticket to see The Cure in Nimes this summer.
The 23-time France international started learning the bass guitar during his time in the academy at Marseille and formed his first band after retiring from the beautiful game.
Di Meco also revealed that his favourite Oasis albums are their debut Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
He added: “Those first two albums are masterpieces, there are only classics on them. I really love playing Rock ’n’ Roll Star and Some Might Say.”