So Patrice Evra was suspended by l'Olympique de Marseille for kicking in the face, while in Portugal for an Europa League game, a (Marseille) supporter who insulted him during warmup. Evra took a red card at 0' and his team lost the game nil to 1.
The UEFA decision is pending (Cantona was suspended 9 months back in the day) but it's probably, at 36, the end of his European career. His stint at Marseille has been terrible, and the supporters didn't take kindly to the gap between his ego and his performances (the always talkative and mini celebrity Marseille kop leader René Malville basically said they wanted to see the young guy from the formation center and that Evra would get wrecked with more insults from the curbs if he were to play ever again), which is at the source of the antagonism.
It's a sad but fitting exit for Evra, a player with a prestigious pedigree but not very well liked. Within my circles, everyone thought he was past his prime many years ago (as far back of the last Ferguson years...) or that he was rarely convincing in the national jersey. A lot of people also never pardoned him for the mutiny of the French team he was the captain of in South Africa, which he gets the blame for (though AFAIK the dynamics of the bus strike never were made clear) and he never shook off the pernicious image of being the leader of the team chavs, an aggressive shithead thug (despite being the son of a diplomat... Some people are projecting pretty hard in French football...).
Contrarian that I am, I took a liking to him in the later years but there's no denying the dude had a mammoth sized ego and that it was an hindrance to him.
It was like a leading title in the news, with plenty of blame for him but some for the fans too.
Fuck Marseille tho
