Who's Anelka ?!

by DeviAngel Fri Jan 25, 2013 11:21 pm

Nicolas Sébastien Anelka (French pronunciation: [ni.kɔ.la a.nɛl.ka]) (born 14 March 1979) is a French footballer who currently a plays for Juventus on loan from Shanghai Shenhua. Anelka was also a regular starter for the French national team. Former Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has described him as a quick player with good aerial ability, technique, shooting, and movement off the ball.[6] Anelka began his career at Paris Saint-Germain, but soon moved to Arsenal. He became a first team regular and won the PFA Young Player of the Year Award the following season.

Arsenal

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.

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 Premier League title and made little progress in the UEFA Champions League, while Anelka wanted a better salary. Fans turned on the striker amid transfer speculation and a perceived lack of enthusiasm, giving him the nickname "Le Sulk."[16] In all he made 72 first team appearances and 17 appearances as a sub for Arsenal, scoring 27 goals.

Real Madrid

He had initial success, but soon fell out of favour 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 favour and figuring in the successful capture of the 1999-00 Champions League campaign[18] (he scored vital goals in both legs of the semi-finals against Bayern Munich[19][20] and started in the final).

Return to Paris-Saint Germain

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.[citation needed] Once again Anelka developed issues with the team coach, Luis Fernandez (who was already under pressure for benching Ronaldinho due to his work ethic) and became unsettled despite good form on the pitch.

Loan to Liverpool

After 30 months, Anelka returned to the Premier League in December 2001 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, scoring goals against Everton,[21] Fulham,[22] Blackburn Rovers,[23] Ipswich Town,[24] and in the FA Cup against Birmingham City,[25] 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 teammate, El Hadji Diouf.

Manchester City

Anelka opted to join Manchester City on 24 May 2002, and the £13 million fee paid by manager Kevin Keegan was then a club record.[27] In his first season at City he would end up top scorer at Maine Road with 14 goals including a goal in the last ever Manchester Derby at Maine Road, against former club Arsenal and a last minute winner at Anfield after scoring a penalty just moments earlier. In his second season at City he finished top scorer again in the clubs first season at the City of Manchester Stadium with 25 goals. Anelka started the 2004/05 campaign in clinical form again scoring the winner in José Mourinho's first ever defeat as Chelsea manager. In January 2005 Anelka decided to move on to Fenerbahçe.

Fenerbahçe
In January 2005, Manchester City announced that Anelka had completed a £7 million transfer to Turkish team Fenerbahçe.[28] Anelka helped the Turkish club win the league title in 2005,[citation needed] and played with them in the UEFA Champions League

Bolton Wanderers

On 25 August 2006, Bolton Wanderers signed Anelka on a four-year deal for a club record of £8 million.[29] Anelka made his debut for Bolton against Watford on 9 September 2006.[30] He finished the 2006–07 season as Bolton's top scorer with 11 goals.[citation needed]

During January 2007, Anelka stated that he would be willing to leave Bolton for a return to former club Arsenal.[31] However, Anelka pledged his future to Bolton in July 2007, following talks with manager Sammy Lee.[32] Anelka later said he would reluctantly consider leaving the club if Bolton's poor start to the 2007–08 season continued,[33] but later signed a new four-year contract until 2011 on 30 August.[34]

Chelsea

n the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final, Anelka delivered Chelsea's seventh penalty, which was saved by Edwin van der Sar, resulting in Manchester United winning the Champions League. Anelka later blamed manager Avram Grant for his penalty miss, claiming Grant brought him on to play as a late substitute without a proper warm up beforehand and also too late in the game to acclimatize himself in it.
On 3 August 2008, Anelka scored four goals in a 5–0 friendly win against A.C. Milan.

With Didier Drogba injured at the beginning of the 2008–09 season, Anelka made a very impressive start to the campaign. He scored 25 times – 19 of which in the Premier League, making the Frenchman the first player to reach 10 goals in the competition that season.[citation needed] For this, he was awarded with a Golden Boot Award on 14 November 2008 and was in the running for the end of season Golden Boot accolade.[38] Anelka scored his first competitive hat-trick for Chelsea against Sunderland, in a 5–0 home win on 1 November 2008, and followed this up with two braces against Blackburn Rovers, then West Bromwich Albion.[39] He established himself as an important member of the squad and maintained his place in the team despite the return to fitness of Drogba. After the arrival of Guus Hiddink, Anelka was more often played on the wing. Furthermore, he was ranked among the top goalscorers in the league for the season. He scored another hat-trick against Watford in the FA Cup to earn Chelsea a 3–1 victory at Vicarage Road.[40] On 10 May, he scored one goal and set up another in a 4–1 away win against former club Arsenal. A goal in Chelsea's final Premier League game of the season at Sunderland put him as top goal scorer for the season in the Premier League, earning him the Golden Boot with 19 goals in total.[41]

Anelka started the 2010–11 campaign in fine form for Chelsea. He assisted Florent Malouda's last goal against West Bromwich Albion on the opening day of the season, scored a double in the next game against Wigan Athletic, and won a penalty against Stoke City in Chelsea's third game of the season. He continued this fine form in Chelsea's first Champions League game, scoring a first half brace against MŠK Žilina. Further goals against Marseille and Spartak Moscow ensured that this was the first season since playing for Paris Saint-Germain that he had scored at least four goals in a UEFA Champions League Season. On 19 October, during Chelsea's Champions League group-stage match against Spartak Moscow, Anelka continued his impressive goal scoring form in the Champions League, scoring the second goal of the match and his 50th goal for Chelsea in the 43rd minute of the game. He ended the 2010–11 season with 16 goals from 45 appearances in all competitions.

Anelka scored Chelsea's first goal of the 2011–12 season against West Bromwich Albion in a 2–1 victory. However, this would prove to be Anelka's final goal for Chelsea as he failed to find the net in 14 further appearances in 2011. On 3 December 2011 after Chelsea's 3–0 victory against Newcastle United, manager André Villas-Boas confirmed to the media that Anelka along with Alex had submitted transfer requests to the club and would be free to leave Chelsea in January.[50] On 12 December, Chelsea confirmed that Anelka would head to the Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua. It was rumored that his salary would be as high as £175,000 a week.[51] After being transfer-listed, Anelka revealed that Villas-Boas banned him from from using the first-team car park, forced to use separate changing rooms and made to train with the youth team. He said "Ever since I was punished they put me with the youngsters.'I’ve got all the kit and equipment that professionals have but they put me in a separate changing room – that’s football for you."[52] Zhu Jun, owner of Shanghai Shenhua, confirmed that they had sealed a deal with Anelka in his weibo on 12 December.[53] The official websites of Shanghai Shenhua and Chelsea also confirmed this transfer later on the same day
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So we get a player who always preforms and is visible on the important matches, can play on the wing to and has a great goal sense and he gets in form with ease. Has great technique and good sense for goal and heading. REal goal thread but his character is the problem. Hmm if Conte manages that I hope to see great player I believe he can deliver not the top signing we wanted but lets get real its January and we need experience in the UCL and he can offer it