The clock was showing 95 minutes.
Marseille, who had been down to 10 men since the fifth minute, had just conceded a stoppage-time equaliser and more than 50,000 home fans were smelling blood as Lyon searched for an improbable win.
Jon Rowe had other ideas.
Instantly controlling the ball after a hurried clearance from Lyon goalkeeper Lucas Perri, the Marseille forward beat two players with a jinking, mazy run down the left before bending a sumptuous shot into the bottom corner.
Rowe’s dramatic late winner sparked wild celebrations, with manager Roberto De Zerbi racing onto the pitch to celebrate a crucial win in one of French football’s red-letter fixtures.
Rowe decided the Olympico with an incredible goal! 🏴🔥 pic.twitter.com/AiqbIfhxjv
— Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) September 22, 2024
The result kept Marseille in check with Monaco and bitter rivals Paris Saint-Germain at the top of the table. Their passionate fanbase is daring to dream about a first French league title since 2010.
Reflecting on Sunday night’s crazy scenes — which came after Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette had also missed a first-half penalty — Rowe is still attempting to make sense of it all.
“I can’t even describe it,” Rowe, 21, told The Athletic in a telephone interview. “I’m still trying to put the words together to explain how I felt throughout that whole game, from the sending-off to the (missed Lacazette) penalty to their equaliser.
“It showed the whole reason I decided to come to Marseille. It screams passion, it screams love of football and that really resonates with my morals in the game.
“The fan reaction, the staff, the players, this is why I’m supposed to be here. I didn’t really know what to do when I scored, everything just happened so quickly.”
For Rowe, the whole summer must have felt like a dizzying blur.
Having spent a decade at Norwich City, he decided the time was right for a new challenge. The departure from Carrow Road was messy, with Norwich manager Johannes Hoff Thorup revealing in a press conference after the opening-day defeat to Oxford United that Rowe had effectively made himself unavailable for selection amid uncertainty over his future. Thorup subsequently confirmed that he had been made to train with the under-21s.
Following Rowe’s eventual departure on an initial season-long loan that will become a permanent transfer next summer, Norwich sporting director Ben Knapper told the club’s website how they were “disappointed with the way certain things played out in recent weeks”.
In an Instagram post written after he left, Rowe apologised to the Norwich fans, adding: “It was uncharacteristic of myself and I understand the reaction. I envisioned my departure from Norwich being completely different to this.”
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Rowe did not want to discuss the circumstances surrounding his Norwich exit with The Athletic but said the club would forever hold a special place in his heart. “I started my career there and I grew up from a boy to a man there, so I’ll forever be grateful to them,” he said.
Instead, he is more focused on the future. Rowe is learning French and finding his feet in the city as he adjusts to a new culture and way of life. So why Marseille and why the move overseas?
“I’m a man who likes challenges and this is a different experience but I’m looking forward to stamping my mark on a different part of the world,” he said. “This is a step up from the Championship, there are fewer games so there’s more time to prepare. It’s not as chaotic but it’s more structured and there’s more quality here. It’s good to test myself.”
The chance to play under De Zerbi, who swapped Brighton & Hove Albion for Marseille in the summer, was another big draw.
“He’s taught me how to keep going no matter what happens, whether something good or something bad happens, you’ve got to have the same mentality and try to improve yourself,” he explained.
“Tactically I’m having to focus more than I’ve ever done in my life which is a task because my attention span is like a goldfish but I realise the importance of the project we’ve got going on here and I need to make sure I’m on board and do everything that needs to be done.”
Rowe had been on the books at Norwich from the age of 11, having grown up in north London.
A Sky Sports profile of Rowe revealed how, as a young boy, he spent more than three hours travelling from London to Norwich several times a week and had to cope with spending long periods away from his mother and sister when he was later placed in a local boarding school, Langley School, close to the club.
“Sometimes you have got to make sacrifices in order to be successful,” he told The Athletic when asked how this gruelling period had affected him. “Every decision I make, I trust it’s the right decision.”
It was not only coping with life away from home that posed challenges. After progressing through the ranks at Norwich and making his first-team debut in the Premier League under Dean Smith, he missed almost the entire 2022-23 campaign back in the Championship through injury.
“That’s what’s shaped me into the person I am today, coming through adversities, especially as a youngster,” he said. “It shapes you as a person, not just as a footballer. I’m the type of person to not let anything keep me down.”
After working his way back to full fitness, Rowe was one of the Championship’s standout players last season. He scored 12 goals in 32 league matches, earning him a nomination for the young Championship player-of-the-year award and an England Under-21s call-up under Lee Carsley. He scored on his debut in a 9-1 win over Serbia in October last year.
Carsley has since stepped up to the senior national team and picked players from his old under-21s setup, including Angel Gomes, for his first games this month. Does that give Rowe greater hope of making his full international debut?
“Lee is a great manager. I realised that when I got my first call up to the under-21s,” he said. “Even when I was in the under-20s, he came and spoke to me — that showed he really cares about the growth of the players.
“It’s a great opportunity for us youngsters and those he’s worked with before as he knows what we’re like, so I look forward to seeing what happens in the future.”
Rowe’s focus is on Marseille and producing more magical moments like his Lyon winner, although he is not the only English player playing well on France’s south coast.
Rowe is part of a front line that also includes Mason Greenwood, a deeply controversial signing from Manchester United in the summer.
In February last year, England and Wales’ Crown Prosecution Service discontinued its case against Greenwood for attempted rape, assault and coercive control, saying “a combination of the withdrawal of key witnesses and new material meant there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”. Greenwood denied all the allegations against him.
When The Athletic visited the city of Marseille in July, shortly after Greenwood’s signing was announced, we found a divided fanbase. While the move was condemned by many fans — joining previous criticism from female campaign groups and Marseille’s mayor, Benoit Payan, who told French radio station RMC that he did not want his club “covered in shame” — others were simply happy to have a player of Greenwood’s talent wearing their colours.
For The Athletic’s interview, Marseille only allowed Rowe to talk about Greenwood’s football and blocked further questions about the off-field controversy — and Greenwood is certainly delivering what Marseille wanted in terms of goals, having scored five in his first three games.
“He’s a great player, the stats show it,” Rowe said. “I have come to play with great players, so I look forward to continue doing that.
“People who speak English, it helps in foreign countries, but there’s only a few players in the squad (who do), there’s also Derek (Cornelius) and Jeffrey (de Lange).”
The arrival of Greenwood, together with a raft of other experienced players, such as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Adrien Rabiot and Neal Maupay, promising talents, including Bamo Meite and Ismael Kone, and De Zerbi himself, has created a buzz around Marseille not been felt for some time.
Given PSG, champions in six of the last seven seasons, are confronting a first campaign without their star centre-forward Kylian Mbappe following his summer move to Real Madrid, it feels like the door could be open to a possible title challenge.
So what does Rowe believe is a realistic aim for Marseille this season?
“We can push for the title,” he replied. “There are many other great teams in this league but I want to achieve great things with this club.”
In a month, Marseille will welcome PSG to the Velodrome for what is shaping up to be the biggest edition of Le Classique in years.
It is an occasion Rowe is already looking forward to and, given how he has started life in France, it’s one that is unlikely to faze him
(Top photo: Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images)
