The arrival of Sergio Contreras Pardo ‘Koke’ at Marseille went virtually unnoticed such was the furore surrounding the club and, in particular, their Coach Alain Perrin at the time.

In December 2003, Perrin had seemingly lost the respect of the Marseille dressing room, while the 1993 European champions were plummeting down the table and had already been unceremoniously dumped out of the Champions’ League in the group stage. Koke, just 20 at the time, must have been wondering what he had let himself in for when Perrin was sacked a month later and replaced by youth-team coach José Anigo.

But Anigo had already taken a shine to the versatile forward and was soon integrating him into the first-team squad, along with other promising youngsters like Mathieu Flamini and Rahmane Barry. Koke made 10 appearances in the 2003/04 campaign and featured even more regularly the following season.

An agile and pacy attacker, who has the sort of assured technique associated with Spanish players, Koke appeared to win over the confidence of his third Marseille Coach, Philippe Troussier, during the 2004/05 campaign. A sign of Troussier's faith was his decision to play Koke from the start in the crunch derby against PSG in April 2005.

Marseille do not have a history of success with Spanish players, making Koke’s switch from his first club Malaga all the more surprising. He made just six appearances in La Liga before moving to the Stade Vélodrome having spent much of the 2002/03 season in the Malaga reserves.

Rafael Martin Vazquez, Alfonso and Ivan De La Peña are among the Spaniards to have tried and failed to settle in the South of France.