Andre Villas-Boas is close to making a return to football as the coach of Marseille.

Talks are understood to have taken place with the French club’s director of football Andoni Zubizarreta who is looking for a successor to Rudi Garcia.

It was announced earlier this week that Garcia will step down as Marseille coach at the end of the season after failing to qualify for European competition. The goal for last season’s Europa League finalists was to make the Champions League.

Villas-Boas, who has been linked to the manager’s job at Celtic, has been out of work since leaving the Chinese club Shanghai SIPG in Nov 2017 after which he announced he was taking an extended break from football.

The former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager, still just 41, even took part in the Dakar Rally soon after – indulging his passion for motorsport – but his participation was cut short by a back injury.