Nicolas Anelka

Lore & Background

Anelka began his career at Paris Saint-Germain, but soon moved to Arsenal. At Arsenal, he won the 1997–98 Premier League and FA Cup double. He became a first team regular and won the PFA Young Player of the Year Award the following season. He moved to Real Madrid for £22.3 million in 1999.

He was part of the Real Madrid team that won the 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League, but he did not settle in well and returned to PSG in a £20 million deal. Despite regular first team football in Paris, Anelka set his eyes upon the Premier League once more, moving on loan to Liverpool in January 2002 before joining Manchester City for £13 million at the start of the 2002–03 season. After three seasons in Manchester, he moved to Turkish club Fenerbahçe for two seasons, before returning to England to join Bolton Wanderers in deals worth £7 million and £8 million respectively.

He was then transferred to Chelsea from Bolton for a reported £15 million in January 2008. At Chelsea, he won one Premier League title and two FA Cup trophies, as well as played in the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League final where he missed the decisive penalty in the shootout. In 2009, he won the Premier League Golden Boot award as the league's top goalscorer. During his transfers over the years, he has built an aggregate transfer cost of just under £90 million.

After leaving Chelsea in 2012, he had brief stints at Shanghai Shenhua, Juventus, West Bromwich Albion and Mumbai City. Anelka played 69 times at international level and won his first international honours with France at UEFA Euro 2000, also winning the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup the following year. His failure to settle at club level limited his international appearances, but he returned to the national team for Euro 2008. On 19 June 2010, he was excluded by the French Football Federation (FFF) from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa for 'comments directed against the national coach, Raymond Domenech.' He did not play again for the national team.

Reader's Guide

Nicolas Sébastien Anelka was born on 14 March 1979 in Le Chesnay, Yvelines, to parents who had moved from Martinique in 1974. Thereafter, they settled in Trappes, near Paris. His childhood friends from Trappes include the actors Omar Sy and Jamel Debbouze. His mother is a secretary in the local high school.

Anelka is married to Barbara Tausia, a Belgian choreographer. Together, they have two sons, Kais, born in 2008, and Kahil, born in 2010. He acted in the 2002 film Le Boulet as a footballer named Nicolas. He said that when he retired from football, he would like to work in the film industry because he has a friend in the business.

He said, 'I have a friend who's a producer, who makes lots of films. He recently did Astérix. So it's already agreed that I'm going to do other films. It helps to know actors and producers.

It's different to football and it's something I enjoy very much because there's no ball. I like pretending to be somebody else, it's fun.' Anelka has two brothers, Claude and Didier. After discussing religion with some childhood friends, Anelka converted to Islam in 2004 in the United Arab Emirates, taking the Muslim name of 'Abdul-Salam Bilal'.

Anelka has said that he initially fasted during daylight hours as is required for the Muslim month of Ramadan, but 'I realised I often got injured just after the period of Ramadan, so I don't observe it strictly any more'. Initially, Anelka considered leaving European football to play in the UAE: 'I am ready to stay here and to play for a club in the Emirates. I am not keen to go back to England or France.' However, this did not come to pass and he briefly moved to Turkey instead, as well as three more English clubs.

Anelka is also known for his friendship with controversial French comedian Dieudonné and Anelka attracted widespread condemnation after performing the quenelle hand gesture, created by Dieudonné and regarded as antisemitic, on the pitch when playing for West Bromwich Albion in 2013. Anelka responded that the gesture was anti-establishment, not antisemitic. An FA disciplinary hearing nonetheless banned Anelka for five matches, but found that he was not antisemitic and had not intended the gesture to express or promote antisemitism.

Did You Know?

• Anelka began his career at Paris Saint-Germain as a youth player at age 16.
• He joined Arsenal in February 1997 at age 17 for a £500,000 transfer fee.
• Anelka scored his first goal for Arsenal in a 3–2 home win against Manchester United in November 1997.
• He scored the second goal in Arsenal's 2–0 win over Newcastle United in the 1998 FA Cup final.
• Anelka was Arsenal's top scorer in the 1998–99 season with 17 Premier League goals.