Paris - Former French international and Juventus Turin coach Didier Deschamps is to replace Belgian Erik Gerets as coach of the French Ligue 1 side Olympique Marseille (OM), the club announced on its web site Tuesday.

The 40-year-old Deschamps signed a two-year contract, which begins in June, at the end of the current season.

Gerets, 54, announced his resignation on April 29, giving as a reason statements made by the club's principal shareholder Robert Louis-Dreyfus and the fact that he had not been offered a new contract.

The Belgian technician is enormously popular with Marseille fans, as he has taken the side to the top of the Ligue 1 standings this year. OM lead Girondins Bordeaux on goal differential with four matches left on the schedule.

Gerets joined the club in 2007 and led them from the bottom of the table to third place in the final standings, and a place in the Champions League.

Deschamps, a defensive midfielder during his playing career, spent four seasons with OM as a player and was on the side that won the UEFA Champions League title in
1993, the only French club ever to win that championship.

He also won 103 caps for the French national team and was captain of the side that won the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship. (dpa)