On the Côte Bleue, where the Mediterranean runs between Marseille and Martigues, two slight figures once judged too small for the professional game are preparing to meet under Ligue 1 lights. Paris FC’s Ilan Kebbal, 28, and Strasbourg’s Gessime Yassine, 20, face one another on Saturday at 17:15 in the fifth round of the season.
Key takeaways
- Algeria international Kebbal and Morocco international Yassine both rebuilt their careers in amateur football around the Marseille coastline.
- Kebbal was released by Bordeaux in 2018 before impressing at FC Côte Bleue in National 3.
- Yassine joined Marignane-Gignac-Côte Bleue in 2023 after unsuccessful spells and trials at several clubs.
- Both players were repeatedly doubted because of their physical profiles: Kebbal is 1.69m and 60kg, while Yassine is 1.72m and 67kg.
- Yassine left for Dunkerque at the end of 2023 and quickly made his mark in Ligue 2.
Kebbal’s long route from rejection to Paris FC
Kebbal’s path began in Marseille and passed through a difficult summer in 2018, when Bordeaux’s academy decided not to keep him. His mother, Wahiba “Biba” Kebbal, felt he had not yet met the demands required of an elite academy player, particularly in his work without the ball and daily discipline. At Bordeaux, he had been alongside better-prepared prospects including Jules Koundé and Aurélien Tchouaméni.
The family had little time to react. A place at Gémenos was unavailable because the squad had already been assembled, so Kebbal joined FC Côte Bleue in National 3 instead. His arrival did not immediately convince everyone. At 1.69m and 60kg, he looked too slight to some teammates, with a few even mistaking him for a ball boy rather than a new player.
That judgment did not last. Under coach Momo Sadani, Kebbal found freedom and confidence. In a match against Gémenos, the club that could not take him, he scored a direct free-kick into the top corner.
It was not his first encounter with football’s fixation on his size. Earlier, after playing for Marignane-Gignac in the 2015-16 season, Kebbal had earned a trial at Troyes through Christophe Maureau, a family acquaintance. The trip north became an ordeal when Maureau’s car broke down two days before departure. They took a BlaBlaCar ride lasting seven hours, and Kebbal arrived exhausted, fell asleep and missed training.
He made a much stronger impression the following day, but Troyes had already recruited another small dribbler. Maureau, who works as a specialist educator in Marseille’s northern districts, also believed Kebbal needed to become less dependent on his close bond with his mother. Biba remains protective of her youngest son in 2026, though from a greater distance.
During the summer, Kebbal told those close to him that he would dearly love to join Marseille. His mother’s wish is simpler: that he finds peace and stability.
Yassine followed the same coastal road
Yassine, born in Salon-de-Provence, also grew up with Marseille in his heart. He learned the game at Istres, then encountered rejection at Strasbourg, Amiens and clubs in Italy before landing at Marignane-Gignac-Côte Bleue FC in the summer of 2023, shortly before turning 18.
The newly merged club had reached U19 National level for the first time and brought in a group of promising youngsters. It rented two flats in Gignac and gave Yassine and his fellow players BPJEPS training contracts.
Former club official Philippe Beltra drove Yassine each day between Gignac and the training ground at Sausset-les-Pins. He remembers a cheerful, relaxed teenager with unwavering confidence, who insisted that professional football was his destination and that one day he might no longer be there because his career would have taken off.
Beltra also told him stories about Kebbal, including an occasion at Martigues when the winger took a corner, saw the goalkeeper struggle to keep it out, then responded to his coach’s demand for greater precision by scoring directly from the next corner.
Yassine enjoyed those tales, as well as snack trips with his U19 teammates, but the senior side initially regarded him as too fragile for National football. He wanted only to train with them, yet staff feared the physical intensity would be too much for him.
He moved to Dunkerque late in 2023 and flourished in Ligue 2. Now, with Kebbal established at Paris FC and Yassine representing Strasbourg, two players shaped by the same stretch of Provençal coast meet again at a far higher level.
