Real Madrid and Juventus meet this Wednesday in the Champions League and Zinédine Zidane is obviously not the only player who has played for both clubs. He the Ballon d'Or 98 recruited for 75 million euros by Casa Blanca in 2001. Fabio Cannavaro, Michael Laudrup, Angel Di Maria, Alvaro Morata, Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo shone with the Merengues and the Bianconeri. There are 18 of them who have passed through the two clubs, including Nicolas Anelka!
In his very rich career, Anelka, trained at PSG but left without signing a professional contract, revealed himself at Arsenal before being recruited for 34 million euros by Real in 1999. The locker room then led by Raul never accepted the prodigy crowned 2000 European champion. PSG took the opportunity to bring back the kid from Trappes for the same sum of 220 million francs! Without further success…
It was at the end of his career that “Nico” Anelka spent a short stint in Piedmont. After having spent time in England or Fenerbahçe, the enfant terrible of French football went into exile in China, even becoming player-coach of Shanghai Shenhua in 2012. Once his contract was terminated, he signed up for six months with the Old Lady in January 2013, after Nicklas Bendtner's serious injury. But this is not going at all as planned.
Anelka wanted to end up at Juve, it failed
Short of form, Anelka does not fit into Antonio Conte's rotation of attackers at all. Sebastian Giovinco plays in support of Alessandro Matri, Fabio Quagliarella or Mirko Vucinic. The Ile-de-France player was thrown into action three times, in Serie A and in the round of 16 of C1 against Celtic, and did not score. Despite several matches spent on the sidelines (alongside a certain Paul Pogba, 18 years old), the 33-year-old player says he wants to finish his career in Turin. He will have the opportunity to celebrate the scudetto before being released.
Nicolas Anelka concluded his career with a sixth and final Premier League club, West Brom, where he scored two goals while causing a scandal by repeating a controversial gesture by the comedian DieudonnĂ©, which the English press interpreted as… Nazi salute! A final adventure in India, at Mumbai City FC, in 2014 and 2015, concludes his journey strewn with pitfalls.
