Keeping the faith
Nicolas Anelka in his prime gave nightmares to defenders with his enormous striking prowess. The firebrand French striker scored over 150 goals in his club career and netted 14 while making 69 appearances for his national team.
In his career spanning almost two decades, he has turned out for high-profile clubs Arsenal, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Chelsea and Juventus. For all those accolades on the pitch he won, his troubled relationship with his managers have overshadowed his glittering career at times. He fell out with Vicente del Bosque at Real Madrid, had a clash of personalities with then Liverpool coach Gerard Houllier, criticised Andre Villas-Boas at Chelsea and twice, he was allegedly involved in bust-ups with France coaches Jacques Santini (2002) and Raymond Domenech.
The Domenech incident during the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa resulted in 18-match ban, effectively ending his international career. The infamous “quenelle” gesture while playing for West Bromwich Albion in 2013 also has seen few takers for him in the European Club market since.
But, such incidents haven’t let Anelka lose his focus. He continues to love playing football, which he fell in love at the age of eight. He has been fighting the odds ever since he got inspiration from his elder brother Claude to become a professional footballer. Claude a former footballer now also manages his Anelka’s career.
Anelka joined his first club Trappes — a town near Paris. From there he moved to Paris Saint-Germain. He was the first signing of Arsene Wenger as Arsenal manager at the age of 17 in 1997. He has been changing one country after the other and there has been no look back.
“What happened in my life happened. You know, it doesn’t matter what happened outside of football. My football is still there. I try my best on the field. I agree, I’m not perfect, but then again, nobody is,” he said during an interaction here. I’m 36 now. It’s time to think that I’m more at the end of my career. But I can say that when I was in West Brom, I could see my level, and I can confidently say that I was better than everyone in attack,” he added.
After West Brom, Anelka was taken up by Indian Super League franchise Mumbai City FC. He was with Algerian football club NA Hussein Dey (NAHD) earlier this year but he couldn’t represent them because he was too old under league rules. He rejoined Mumbai City FC as player cum manager last month. “I won’t be a manager who is out of reach. I will be there for my players, not just as manager, but even as a player. They will not feel I am above them,” said Anelka perhaps indicating some of his past managers were inaccessible which resulted in miss-communication.
However, controversies apart, Anelka married to Belgian choreographer Barbara Tausia with two sons Kais and Kahil has rather maintained a low profile despite being one of the expensive players in the history with cumulative transfer fees of more than £120 million. Le Sulk, as he has long been dubbed, and the sensitive, was often misunderstood. Over the years he has also developed a calming influence, which he attributes to his faith. On the field he has had hardly to say anything to his opponents despite being an aggressive striker.
“Normally, opponents don’t speak to me as I don’t fight on the pitch. I don’t try to attack people or hurt people on the pitch. I think it can happen if you’re also bad on the pitch. If someone tries to do something to me, if you’re clever you try to respond on the football pitch and try to score goals,” Anelka replied. But his new role will demand him to be extrovert and talk a lot with players, team management and media. “I don’t like talking to the media too much, I’m doing this because I have to. I have played under a lot of managers and I know how to speak with players. I will sit down with all of them, ask them their best position and won’t be a manager who will play a striker out on the wings,” he said.