Invited to look back on his career with the Blues, Olivier Giroud spoke about the period before Euro 2016, a period that he had a bad time, against a backdrop of comparison with Karim Benzema.
Now part of the history of the French team, where he is the current top scorer with fifty-six goals, Olivier Giroud has not always benefited from the public’s favor. And in particular those of the Blues supporters. Invited to speak about his history with the selection, the AC Milan center forward recalled a complicated period for him. It was before Euro 2016, and the shadow of Karim Benzema hovered around him.
It was during a podcast broadcast on the website of the French Football Federation that Olivier Giroud addressed the subject. “ Before Euro 2016 is complicated, yes. It was a delicate period in my career, perhaps the most delicate in the French team where I am, as a major French daily headlined it, ‘the unloved’. It’s true that at that time, I suffered a little from the comparison and opposition with Karim Benzema. »
“It was very hard”
And the thirty-seven-year-old veteran continued: “ I am accused of being the one who takes his place, when it could have been me or it could have been someone else. There is a feeling of injustice at that moment because I didn’t ask for anything and I’m here, in the French team, and I do the job, I score. I remember this match in Nantes against Cameroon where I scored a nice goal and afterwards I went out and I was whistled by a minority of the public, but it touched me. Because being whistled by your French audience… »
Fortunately for him, Olivier Giroud was not alone: “ At that time, despite my good performances, it was hard. It was very hard. But I was able to count on the support of my partners at that time, and in the end on the bus they were singing the Clo-Clo song (Claude François, editor’s note), ‘unloved, I am the unloved’. At that moment, I was laughing a little bit, but I was able to bounce back quickly (…). »
