Football: No tears over Ravanelli's departure

While Marseilles will welcome Fabrizio Ravanelli's scoring abilities, there were no tears at the Riverside Stadium over the Italian's departure from Middlesbrough.

"He will only be remembered for his whingeing and for the trouble he caused," the Middlesbrough Supporters' Club secretary, Simon Bolton, said.

Ravanelli, desperate to improve his flagging World Cup credentials, left relegated Middlesbrough for France in a pounds 5.35m deal, which is reported to have involved a large pay cut.

The French club hope that they have at last landed the striker they have been looking for since their fall from grace in a match-rigging scandal in 1993.

"I'm going to a club that is being reborn and for me too it's a sort of rebirth," Ravanelli said. "Marseilles are a team with tradition, the first French team of international standing. I know the club have had some difficult seasons but I hope to help them at least to qualify for a European cup competition."

Marseilles' attack is the worst in the French First Division, all but one of their 10 goals in nine games coming from Ghana's Arthur Moses. Miladin Becanovic and Titi Camara have yet to find the net.

Xavier Gravelaine, the club's top scorer with 15 goals last season and three this season, said of Ravanelli's signing: "Now we're beginning to look like an interesting team."