In the same way as Fabien Barthez, Zinédine Zidane and others Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira will forever remain one of those who won the first World Cup of the French team. Sacred with Aimé Jacquet's team in 1998, the midfielder had revealed himself a few years earlier on the side of AC Milan, but especially of Arsenal. But when leaving Italy, Patrick Vieira almost never landed in London.
Former player of the player trained at the FC Tours well at AS Cannes, Marc Roger delivered on RMC An anecdote relating to the transfer of Patrick Vieira to Arsenal. And at the start, it was not at all that the latter had to be transferred. “We made the trip with Patrick and my partner of the time, Jean-François Larios, we spent two days at Ajax Amsterdam. And as we had just learned that Arsène Wenger was going to join an English club, 'Jef' called Arsène in Japan and that's how he convinced him to take Patrick Vieira. »»
Arsenal rather than Ajax
The big tricolor environment was therefore very close to engaging with Ajax which had won the Champions League a year earlier. But faced with this thunderclap in the form of a change of direction, AC Milan was afraid and at first, did not even appreciate the case at all, as Marc Roger told.
“AC Milan was very angry when they were told at the end of the second day spent in Amsterdam, which would not be signed with Ajax. »» But the agent assured them that Milan would receive the same transfer amount with Arsenal and that
“Everything would be settled in twenty-four hours”.
Reassured, Milanese leaders finally agreed for this surprise transfer to Arsenal. Milan collected some 5.3 million euros and Patrick Vieira went to revive with Gunners After a few complicated months in Italy. With Arsenal, the winner of Euro 2000 with the Blues accumulated the trophies and was also part of the legendary team of “invincible”, during a 2003-2004 season concluded without the slightest defeat in the Premier League.
