Nicolas Anelka

Personal information
Full name	Nicolas Anelka
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1]
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Chelsea
Number	39
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 12:00, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Nicolas Anelka (born March 14, 1979)^[2] is a French football striker who plays for Chelsea of the Barclays Premier League. After making his name at Arsenal, he has since played for eight teams in ten years, earning himself the nickname "Le Sulk"^[3] in the process.

He transferred to Chelsea from Bolton Wanderers for a reported £15 million in January 2008. As a result, he became the most paid-for player in football history having commanded more than £85 million in transfer fees.^[4]

He wears the 39 shirt for club and country.

Background

Born in Versailles, Anelka's parents are from Martinique. He has two brothers, Claude, and Didier. His wife Barbara Tausia is frontwomen from Italian dance band Eu4ya. Anelka has changed his name to 'Abdul-Salam Bilal' عبد السلام بلال, since he converted to Islam.^[5][6]

Club career

Anelka started his career at Paris Saint-Germain as a youth player and was said to have great potential for striking a ball and set play goals.^{[who?][citation needed]} In February 1997, at the age of 17, he joined English Premier League club Arsenal for a fee of £500,000^[7] under newly appointed manager Arsène Wenger. Anelka scored his first goal for Arsenal against Manchester United in a 3–2 home win.^[8] His first team opportunities were limited in the 1996–97 season, but in the 1997–98 season he broke into the first team, after a long-term injury to striker Ian Wright. Anelka was a key player in Arsenal's "Double" win, of both the Premier League championship and the FA Cup trophy that season. Anelka scored the second goal in Arsenal's 2–0 win over Newcastle United in that season's FA Cup final. He is famous for his pace, power and tricks. He is valued at £20 million.

A player with exceptional pace, he won the PFA Young Player of the Year Award in the 1998–99 season, but Arsenal failed to defend their Premiership title and made little progress in the UEFA Champions League, while Anelka wanted a better salary. In all he made 90 appearances for Arsenal, scoring 28 goals.

He transferred to Real Madrid C.F. in the summer of 1999 for £22.3 million pounds.^[9] Anelka began brightly, arriving as a record signing to the Madrid side. He had initial success, but soon fell out of favor with fans, fellow players, and new coach Vicente del Bosque, at one point receiving a 45-day suspension for refusing to train. Despite eventually returning to favor and figuring in the successful capture of the 1999-2000 Champions League campaign^[10] (he scored vital goals in both legs of the semi-finals against Bayern Munich), he was surplus to the requirements of the club.

Anelka signed a professional contract at Paris Saint-Germain, a return to the club at which he used to play as a youth player, in a transfer deal worth £20 million. After eighteen months, Anelka returned to the English Premiership in January 2002 with Liverpool on a short term loan deal until the end of the season. He contributed to Liverpool's late push to come second in the league but manager Gérard Houllier decided not to offer him a permanent deal after the end of the season in favour of signing his future Bolton team mate El Hadji Diouf. Nevertheless, he was placed 96th in the 100 Players Who Shook The Kop. Anelka opted to join newly promoted Manchester City F.C., and the £13 million fee paid by manager Kevin Keegan was a club record.

In January 2005, the speculation ended when Manchester City announced that Anelka had completed a £7 million transfer to Turkish team Fenerbahçe.^[11] Anelka helped the Turkish club win the league title in 2005. In August of that same year, there was considerable speculation in the press that Anelka was being courted by Newcastle United for a return to English football, although the transfer never came about. Anelka stayed on at the Turkish club where he played with them in the UEFA Champions League, but they finished bottom of their group.

During the summer transfer window of 2006, press reports once again linked Anelka with a return to English football. Portsmouth F.C. manager Harry Redknapp was allegedly willing to either pay £8.2 million to bring the striker to Fratton Park, or take him on a season long loan.^[12]

On August 25, 2006, Bolton Wanderers signed Anelka on a four-year deal for a club record of £8m.^[13] Anelka made his debut for Bolton against Watford on September 9 2006.^[14] He finished the 2006-07 season as Bolton's top scorer with 11 goals.

During January 2007, Anelka stated that he would be willing to leave Bolton Wanderers for a return to former club Arsenal.^[15] However, Anelka pledged his future to Bolton Wanderers in July 2007, following talks with manager Sammy Lee.^[16] Anelka later said he would reluctantly consider leaving the club if Bolton's poor start to the 2007-08 season continues.^[17] However, Anelka signed a new four year contract with Bolton Wanderers on August 30, which would expire in 2011.^[18]

On January 11, 2008 it was confirmed that Anelka would join Chelsea for £15 million^[19], making him the most expensive player in footballing history, with £87 million having been spent on his services since he left Paris Saint Germain for Arsenal in 1997^[20]. Anelka made his debut for Chelsea against Tottenham Hotspur on January 12, 2008. ^[21]. He scored his first goal for Chelsea on January 26, 2008 in the FA Cup 4th-round against Wigan Athletic, and scored his first league goal on February 2 against Portsmouth F.C.. He did not score again for Chelsea during the 2007-2008 season ^[2]. This was generally attributed by fans to Avram Grant's prevalent use of him from the substitutes' bench, and, when so, in a wing position instead of his preferred central role.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final, Anelka's seventh and decisive penalty was stopped by Edwin van der Sar, ultimately resulting in Manchester United winning the Champions League. On August 3, 2008, Anelka scored 4 goals against AC Milan in a 5-0 friendly win.

Anelka has had a very impressive start to the 2008/09 season scoring 10 goals in the Premiership and several more in the Champions League. The return of Didier Drogba against Cluj meant that Anelka took to the subs bench , however Didier Drogba was injured during this match match and Anelka resumed the starting spot in the lineup. Anelka scored his first competitive hat-trick for Chelsea against Sunderland, in a 5-0 home win on November 1, 2008.he is known as one of the most deadly strikers in europe. lately he has scored 5 in 3 games.

International career

At youth level, Anelka played for the French U-20 team at the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, and made his senior team debut for France in a goalless draw with Sweden on April 22, 1998. When striker Djibril Cissé was forced out of 2006 World Cup due to injury, Olympique Lyonnais' striker Sidney Govou was called up as Cissé's replacement rather than Anelka, who described the decision as a "real shame...I was completely available and ready to play in this World Cup. I think I could have helped France."

Anelka came on as a substitute in the Euro 2008 qualifier against Lithuania on March 24, 2007, and scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory. Following his performance, Anelka was praised by Raymond Domenech: "It is the Nicolas I like to see... when he shows these qualities, he is a candidate for a permanent place." ^[22] He also scored in the 2–0 victory against Ukraine on June 2, 2007, and is now one of Raymond Domenech's first-choice strikers, forming France's number one attacking partnership with Thierry Henry. ^{[citation needed]}

Anelka featured in the France squad for the Euro 2008 Championships in Austria and Switzerland ^[23]. Anelka started France's first group game against Romania, but was substituted after 72 minutes ^[24]. He did not start either of France's remaining two games in the tournament against Netherlands and Italy, coming on as a substitute in both games ^{[25] [26]}. Anelka is well known for his butterfly celebration in which he places both of his hands together and flutters his hands. This is because his daughter's favourite insect (or animal) is a butterfly. he is known as one of the most deadly strikers in europe. lately he has scored 5 in 3 games

Personal

Anelka acted in the 2002 film Le Boulet as a footballer named Nicolas. He has stated that when he hangs up his boots, he would like to work in the film industry, because he has a friend in the business.^[27] He said: "I have a friend who's a producer, who makes lots of films. He recently did Asterix. So it's already agreed that I'm going to do other films. It helps to know actors and producers. It's different to football and it's something I enjoy very much because there's no ball. I like pretending to be somebody else, it's fun."

Chants

A big favourite at Bolton, Anelka had two chants whilst at the Reebok Stadium, one such song went to the tune of The Automatic song Monster where the lyrics were changed slightly to "What's that coming over the hill, is it Anelka, is it Anelka?"

At Chelsea, his chant is to the tune of Conga by Black Lace where the lyrics are changed to "Do do do, Nicolas Anel-ka)"

Statistics

Club performance

As of 2008-09-17.^[2][28]

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1995-96||rowspan="2"|Paris Saint-Germain||rowspan="2"|Division 1||2||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||2||0 |- |1996-97||8||1||0||0||1||0||1||0||10||1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1996-97||rowspan="3"|Arsenal||rowspan="3"|Premier League||4||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||4||0 |- |1997-98||26||6||9||3||3||0||2||0||40||9 |- |1998-99||35||17||5||0||0||0||5||1||45||18 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1999-00||Paris Saint-Germain||Division 1||27||8||0||0||1||0||9||5||37||13 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2000-01||rowspan="2"|Real Madrid||rowspan="2"|La Liga||19||2||0||0||0||0||9||2||28||4 |- |2001-02||12||2||0||0||0||0||7||3||19||5 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2001-02||Liverpool||Premier League||20||4||2||1||0||0||0||0||22||5 |- |2002-03||rowspan="3"|Manchester City||rowspan="3"|Premier League||38||14||1||0||2||0||0||0||41||14 |- |2003-04||32||16||4||4||2||0||5||4||43||25 |- |2004-05||19||7||0||0||0||0||0||0||19||7 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2004-05||rowspan="3"|Fenerbahçe||rowspan="3"|Super League||14||4||2||0||colspan="2"|-||2||0||18||4 |- |2005-06||25||10||6||2||colspan="2"|-||6||0||37||12 |- |2006-07||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||2||0||2||0 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2006-07||rowspan="2"|Bolton Wanderers||rowspan="2"|Premier League||35||11||3||0||1||1||0||0||39||12 |- |2007-08||18||10||0||0||0||0||4||1||22||11 |- |2007-08||rowspan="2"|Chelsea||rowspan="2"|Premier League||14||1||3||1||2||0||5||0||24||2 |- |2008-09||12||10||0||0||0||0||3||1||15||11 Template:Football player statistics 349||11||0||0||2||0||17||8||68||19 Template:Football player statistics 4242||96||27||9||10||1||21||6||300||103 Template:Football player statistics 419||2||0||0||colspan="2"|-||9||2||28||4 Template:Football player statistics 439||14||8||2||colspan="2"|-||10||0||57||16 Template:Football player statistics 5349||114||35||11||12||1||57||16||454||143 |}

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	October 10, 1998	Moscow, Russia	Russia	1-0	3-2	Euro 2000 qualification
2.	February 10, 1999	London, England	England	1-0	2-0	Friendly match
3.	February 10, 1999	London, England	England	2-0	2-0	Friendly match
4.	June 6, 2000	Casablanca, Morocco	Morocco	4-1	5-1	Friendly match
5.	August 16, 2000	Marseille, France	FIFA XI	5-0	5-1	Exhibition match
6.	May 30, 2001	Daegu, Korea	South Korea	3-0	5-0	2001 Confederations Cup
7.	November 9, 2005	Fort-de-France, France	Costa Rica	1-2	3-2	Friendly match
8.	October 11, 2006	Sochaux, France	Faroe Islands	3-0	5-0	Euro 2008 qualification
9.	March 24, 2007	Kaunas, Lithuania	Lithuania	1-0	1-0	Euro 2008 qualification
10.	June 2, 2007	Saint-Denis, France	Ukraine	2-0	2-0	Euro 2008 qualification
11.	October 13, 2007	Torshavn, Faroe Islands	Faroe Islands	1-0	6-0	Euro 2008 qualification
12.	September 11, 2008	Stade de France, Paris	Serbia	2-1	2-1	2010 World Cup Qualifying

Career honours

Club

Arsenal

• FA Premier League: 1997-98
• (runner-up): 1998-99
• FA Cup: 1998
• FA Charity Shield: 1998

Real Madrid CF

• UEFA Champions League: 2000

Paris Saint-Germain

• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2001

Liverpool

• FA Premier League:
  • (runner-up): 2001-02

Fenerbahçe

• Turkish Premier Super League: 2004-05
• (runner-up): 2005-06
• Turkish Cup:
• (runner-up): 2006

Bolton

• Peace Cup:
  • (runner-up): 2007

Chelsea

• FA Premier League:
  • (runner-up): 2007-08
• Football League Cup:
  • (runner-up): 2008
• UEFA Champions League:
  • (runner-up): 2008

France

• UEFA European Football Championship: 2000
• FIFA Confederations Cup: 2001

References

External links

• Nicolas Anelka – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Template:Fr icon FFF profile
• Bolton Wanderers Profile at Burnden Aces
• Nicolas Anelka at Soccerbase
• FootballDatabase profile and statistics
• Map illustrating the playing career of Nicolas Anelka
• Sporting-Heroes photographs and statistics