Former Premier League attacker Nicolas Anelka left Arsenal to join Real Madrid in a blockbuster in 1999, but regretted it as soon as he touched in the Spanish capital
For most players, signing Real Madrid is the ultimate dream. But for Nicolas Anelka it soon turned into a nightmare. The French striker has admitted that he “hated” from the day one, overwhelmed by fame, attention and ruthless control that was accompanied by a galactico.
Less than two years after arrival in Arsenal as a new 17-year-old, Anelka became the most expensive teenager in football history and joined Los Blancos for £ 22.3 million in 1999. He had just ended the 1998/99 season with 17 Premier League goals and was generally seen as a future superstar.
The move was completely logical on paper. Where better to fulfill his enormous potential than at the largest club in Europe? But instead of launching him in the stratosphere, the switch stopped his rise – and almost derailed his entire career.
“I understood what it meant to be a star when I arrived at Real Madrid, and I hated it,” Anelka revealed, now 46, on the Netflix documentary Anelka: misunderstood. “After I was greeted at the airport by fans and journalists, I thought,” What am I doing here? This is too difficult. ” It was the start of a nightmare.
“I felt a lot of pressure from the start. Every day in the Spanish press there was an article or a photo about me.”
A slow start of life in the Spanish capital made things worse. With Raul and Fernando Morientes for him in the pecking order, Anelka was reduced to a bit speech, and it took him five months to score his first goal for the club.
He ended the campaign with only two La Liga goals, and that summer he was sold to PSG. “I would have liked to score more, but I didn't have the chance and I didn't measure it,” Anelka admitted.
“Too many things has happened. I partially regret it. Players always want to play for Real Madrid. There were too many sacrifices to make and I was too young to understand.”
Anelka's enchantment in the Bernabeu lasted only a year – but by that time the damage was caused. His shaded confidence, he had trouble recovering the spark he had shown every week in Highbury, and in 2002 the once record -breaking wonderful child for a middle base of the middle table in Manchester City became.
Looking back, Anelka admitted that he should never have left Arsenal. Under the guidance of Arsene Wenger, he had drunk, although he could not recognize how well he was doing at the time. Not that Gunners had to grieve fans for a long time – given that they replace him with another gifted Frenchman: Thierry Henry.
Only in his 2008 move to Chelsea did Anelka finally found the platform that deserved his talents. He formed a formidable partnership with Didier Drogba and helped the blues to shoot a Premier League title and two FA Cup triumphs.
Although he left Stamford Bridge halfway through the Champions League -winning campaign from Chelsea, Anelka avoided the Angel of Abuse – since he had already lifted the trophy with Real Madrid 12 years earlier.
His nomadic career later saw him appear before Shanghai Shenhua, Juventus, West Brom and Mumbai City before he retired in 2015. He hung up his boots with more than 220 career goals, including 14 for France.
Real Madrid will be confronted on Tuesday evening with Arsenal in the first stage of their quarter -final collision of the Champions League. The Gunners hope to reach the semi -final for the first time since 2009, where they were defeated by Manchester United.
Carlo Ancelotti, who led Los Blancos to European glory last season, only wants to become the second manager to win back-to-back Champions League titles in the modern era of the tournament. Zinedine Zidane remains the only man who did it – Madrid to a historic three -poll from 2016 to 2018.
Ancelotti is only the most successful coach in the history of Champions League with five titles. A sixth would move him further for Zidane, Bob Paisley and Pep Guardiola, who each have three.
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