Like the Champions du Mondes 2018 Olivier Giroud, Paul Pogba and Florian Thauvin, Bixente Lizarazu had returned to the French championship in 2004, after a season at Athletic Bilbao and seven in Bayern Munich. The former left side, world and European champion with the Blues, had settled in Marseille.
Unfortunately for him, this return to the hexagonal lawns turned to the fiasco. The Basque then decided to leave the Canebière after only 15 matches played under the sky and white tunic to return to Bavaria. Nevertheless, despite a complicated experience in the Marseille city, “Liza” offered a record during comeback in the French championship.
Indeed, he has become the most selections in the French team to play an L1 match (97 selections in 2004). A record that the TF1 consultant lost this Sunday, broken by Olivier Giroud.
Giroud scorer for his return to Ligue 1
After a freelance in MLS, where he did not shine, the 38 -year -old striker decided to return to France this summer, on the side of Lille, thirteen years after his departure from Montpellier. And on the occasion of the first match of the 2025-2026 LOSC season against Brest this Sunday, Giroud was established by Bruno Genesio. He thus broke the record of Lizarazu, he who is the third most capped player in the history of the Blues – ex aequo with Antoine Griezmann – with 137 selections.
On the lawn of Brest, Olivier Giroud needed only 11 minutes of play to find the way to the nets and thus sign his comeback in Ligue 1 with a goal. On the other hand, the DOGUES could not do better than a draw (3-3).
