Anelka made a surprise move to Los Blancos ahead of the 1999/2000 season, having scored 17 league goals in the previous campaign as Arsenal won a Premier League-FA Cup double. His form with the Gunners has alerted Real Madrid to his rise as one of the best young strikers in Europe.
However, despite high hopes of replicating that in Madrid, the former France international has struggled to show his best version. Anelka often criticized the media intrusion into his life in Spain – as he failed to score a single goal in his first five months at the club – before leaving after just one season.
Anelka’s regrets
He returned to Paris Saint-Germain ahead of the 2000/01 season – the club he left Arsenal for in 1997 – and has opened up about his problems at Madrid as part of a new Netflix documentary Anelka: Misunderstood.
“I understood what it meant to be a star when I arrived at Real Madrid, and I hated it,” he declared. After being greeted at the airport by fans and journalists, I said to myself: ‘What am I doing here?’ It’s too hard. It was the start of a nightmare. »
“I felt a lot of pressure from the start. Every day, the Spanish press published an article or a photo about me. I would have liked to score more, but I didn’t have the chance and I wasn’t up to the task. Too much has happened. In part, I 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 left Madrid with seven goals scored in all competitions in 1999/00, but won the Champions League, starting in Real Madrid’s 3-0 final victory over Valencia.
