{"id":463792,"date":"2026-02-09T13:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/463792\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T13:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:35:09","slug":"cigarettes-pyjamas-facetime-how-a-usmnt-star-learned-to-love-marseille","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/463792\/","title":{"rendered":"Cigarettes, Pyjamas, FaceTime\u2014How a USMNT Star Learned to Love Marseille"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. men\u2019s national team attacker Tim Weah says a middle-of-the-night FaceTime call from manager Roberto De Zerbi and a quick embrace have helped him feel at home with Marseille, following a testing time with Serie A giants Juventus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Weah, 25, recalled De Zerbi\u2019s pursuit of him in the summer, using a relatively untraditional method in the modern game, in order to land the American forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coach really believed in me,\u201d Weah told T\u00e9l\u00e9foot<\/a>. \u201cHe called me at four in the morning in my pyjamas, on FaceTime. He was smoking, and he said, \u2018Tim, you have to come here. You\u2019ll see, this is your home.\u2019 And at the airport, I was received as if I were at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since arriving in Marseille, Weah has become a key player in De Zerbi\u2019s side and been embraced by the fanbase, going on to add that he is starting to feel \u201ca bit like a Marseillais,\u201d after just six months with his new club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This season, he has been a versatile attacking force, racking up two goals and two assists across 17 games in Ligue 1 action, while adding a goal and an assist in the UEFA Champions League. All told, it\u2019s given him a sense of belonging, after admitting that he was a \u201cbroken player\u201d by the time he stepped away from Juventus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I arrived here, they took on a player who was a bit broken, lacking in confidence,\u201d he added. \u201cGetting up in the morning was hard for me, going to training. Because things weren\u2019t going well for me. So they took a chance on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weah Hoping to Build Form for Famous 2026\"Tim<\/p>\n

Tim Weah has embraced life in Marseille. | Franco Arland\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Given his success this season with Marseille, Weah, the son of former Ballon d\u2019Or winner and Liberian Prime Minister, George Weah, hopes to translate his success at the 2026 World Cup when he dons the Stars and Stripes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before that, he will keep his focus on the Ligue 1 season as Marseille look to find their way back into the automatic top three spots for Champions League qualification, currently sitting fourth with 39 points, behind Lyon on 42 points through 21 games each following a 5\u20130 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n

While the club didn\u2019t advance to the knockout phase of the Champions League, there is still hope in the French Cup, where they are among the eight quarterfinalists after a round of 16 win over Rennes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I want to stay at Olympique Marseille for a long time,\u201d Weah added. \u201cI give my all for this club, I want to win something here, and I hope to start this year. It would be a dream to win a trophy in my first season.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ THE LATEST USMNT NEWS, REACTION AND ANALYSIS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. men\u2019s national team attacker Tim Weah says a middle-of-the-night FaceTime call from manager Roberto De Zerbi and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-463792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}