Suing Donald Trump and clay pigeon shooting with Gerry Marsden: Inside the life of former Inter Milan, Everton and Leeds midfielder Olivier Dacourt
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Olivier Dacourt enjoyed a successful 18-year professional career playing for clubs such as Inter Milan, Roma, Everton and Leeds United, as well as making 21 appearances for France.
The former midfielder won a couple of Serie A titles and Confederations Cups during his time as a football, but off the pitch he had some notable moments too, including a run-in with business magnate and then-future American president Donald Trump.
When asked about suing Trump, Dacourt responded to FourFourTwo: "Haha - yes!
"Wow, that was a long time ago. As investors we bought some apartments in Manhattan, but there was a lot of trouble with it so we sued Trump because he was the previous owner. There were around 30 of us. Of course, we didn’t know that we were suing the future president of America!"
That's not the only story Dacourt has of an incident involving someone high-profile outside of football, though. Indeed, while playing at Everton during the 1998/99 season, Dacourt lived next door to Gerry and the Pacemakers lead singer Gerry Marsden in Liverpool.
The neighbours struck up a bond in that period, playing golf and going clay pigeon shooting together, as Dacourt explains.
"Gerry was unbelievable with me, and I actually didn’t know anything about his music background. He took me to play golf and we went clay pigeon shooting. He didn’t have to do that, but he was a very kind person.
"I was sad when I received the call [in 2021] to tell me that he had died. But he’d had a great life."
