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Nicolas Sebastian Anelka (born 14 March 1979 in Versailles) is a professional
football player, preferring to play in the forward position. He plays
for Chelsea in the English Premier League.
He won the 1998-99 PFA Young Player of the Year award after making his name at
Arsenal, and has since changed clubs many times. He finished the 2006-07 season for
Bolton Wanderers' as top-scorer with 11 goals.
Anelka is the son of two parents from Martinique, Marguerite and Jean-Philippe, who
emigrated to Metropolitan France in 1974.
 International
career
At junior level, Anelka played for the French junior team in the 1997 FIFA World
Youth Championship. Anelka had made his senior team debut for France in a goalless
draw with Sweden on April 21, 1998 but was overlooked for the 1998 World Cup. He
was part of France's Euro 2000 and 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup squads. However, in
2002, he again was left out of the 2002 World Cup. After France's disastrous
defense of their title in Japan & Korea, manager Roger Lemerre was replaced by
Jacques Santini. Anelka was not called up for international duty between 2002 and
2005, after a fallout with Santini, when he snubbed a call up for a friendly match,
due to an injury. However he enjoyed a revival of sorts, as Santini's replacement
Raymond Domenech recalled him to the squad for a round of friendly matches in
November 2005, culminating in him scoring his first international goal for over
three years in a 3-2 win over Costa Rica on the island of Martinique. As of March
2006, he has won 31 caps for France, scoring seven goals.
He was not selected for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, and even when striker
Djibril Cissé was forced out of the tournament due to injury, Olympique Lyonnais'
striker Sidney Govou was called up as Cissé's replacement rather than Anelka, who
declared in response, "My absence is 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 European Championshp qualifier against
Lithuania in March 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.
"
Club
career
Niko Anelka started out at Paris Saint-Germain as a youth
player. In November 1996, at the age of 17, he joined English club Arsenal for
a fee of £500,000, under newly appointed Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger. 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 "The Double" win, of
both Premier League championship and 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 and finishing ability, 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. In
addition, Anelka made it clear he wanted a better salary than the one Arsenal were
offering him. Rumours of his older brothers, who were his agents, galvanizing his
career decisions also emerged as the star was renowned for his temperaments with
his clubs, forcing him to be left with the unenviable nickname of the Incredible
Sulk. He was eventually transferred to Spanish giants Real Madrid in the summer of
1999, for £22.3m. In all he made 90 appearances for Arsenal (including 17 as a
substitute), scoring 28 goals and establishing himself as a top class striker.
Anelka spent just one season at Real Madrid, and played in the side that won the
UEFA Champions League final, beating Valencia 3-0. However, his form was remarkably
worse than it had been at Arsenal – scoring only four goals in 29 appearances – and
his inability to mix with his teammates (with the exception of good friend Steve
McManaman) as well as to cope with media attention led to him leaving in the summer
of 2000. He began his second spell at Paris St-Germain, in a transfer deal worth
£20 million.
After one season at Paris St-Germain, Anelka returned to the English Premiership,
signing a one-year loan deal with Liverpool. He failed to hold down a regular first
team place and manager Gérard Houllier decided not to offer him a permanent deal
after the end of the season. Nevertheless, he placed 96th in the 100 Players Who
Shook The Kop. Anelka opted to join newly promoted Manchester City and the £12
million fee paid by manager Kevin Keegan was a club record.
In his three seasons at Manchester City, although scoring freely, the addition of
Anelka to the club's squad hardly made a drastic difference to its playing
fortunes. They finished ninth in 2002-03 season, 16th in 2003-04 season and midway
through the 2004-05 season they were looking set for a mid-table finish at best.
There was increasing speculation as to whether Anelka was going to be transferred
to a bigger club.
On January 27, 2005, the speculation ended when Manchester City announced that it
had agreed a £7 million fee for Anelka's transfer to Turkish team Fenerbahçe.
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. They also fell
short in the title race in 2006, as rivals Galatasaray won the title on the
season's final day.
During the summer transfer window of 2006, press reports once again linked Anelka
with a return to English football. Portsmouth 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. However, Bolton Wanderers swooped in and on August 25
2006, manager Sam Allardyce announced that he had signed Anelka on a four year deal
for a club record of £8m. This brought his total combined transfer fees to
approximately £69.8 million.
Anelka took time to settle in at Bolton, and took until 25 November 2006 to score
his first league goal for the club. Ironically this came in the form of a brace
against Arsenal, the club that introduced him to the Premiership. In this game
against Arsenal at the Reebok Stadium, he managed to score a goal in both the first
and second halves of the game. The first goal,was quite remarkable, winning
November's Goal of the Month award on Match of the Day.
Anelka celebrates his goals by making a butterfly sign. Interlocking his two hands
and creating a flicking movement, On the 30 December 2006 Anelka revealed to
English paper The Daily Mail that the celebration was "something between me and my
friends in France" it is thus assumed a celebration he wishes to keep personal.
Anelka joined Chelsea FC on 11 January
2008.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Nicolas
Anelka - Manifesting Generator - Biography
