Avi Assouly

Avi Assouly was born in 1950 in Aïn El Arbaa

Assouly was born on 5 June 1950 in Aïn El Arbaa, in Algeria under French rule. His family moved to France in 1962, first to Marseille and then to Besançon. As a young man he studied law and played a few matches for Besançon's professional club in the French second division.

He first came to Israel in 1973 and trained with Maccabi Tel Aviv. During the Yom Kippur War he volunteered on a kibbutz in the north. In 1984 he returned to Israel and volunteered for service in the IDF.

He began as a sports journalist in 1984 at the magazine Crampons and later moved to radio. From 1992 to 2009 he called more than 1,500 Olympique de Marseille matches on France Bleu Provence. On 5 May 1992 he was badly hurt when a stand collapsed at the Stade Armand-Cesari, and he spent 21 days in a coma.

In 2010 he was elected to the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional council on Michel Vauzelle's list. In 2012 he entered the National Assembly as substitute for Marie-Arlette Carlotti and served until 2 May 2014, sitting on the foreign affairs committee. In 2022 he ran again and won 713 first round votes.

Assouly died in Marseille on 14 February 2025.