Olivier Giroud Proved His Quality Again at World Cup

For striker Olivier Giroud, France’s World Cup triumph will be especially sweet. Olivier Giroud is a player finally being appreciated after years of consistency which had gone unnoticed.

The former Montpellier and Arsenal man, who now plays for Chelsea, is an unfashionable striker in today’s game. What Olivier Giroud is not is a Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo type. An all-action attacker who will score 50 goals a season.

What he is is a high-quality target man who links the play and reliably gets 15 – 20 goals a season.

After seven years at Arsenal, he was relegated to the position of ‘super sub’. He was eventually moved on to accommodate new players and a faster attacking style.

When he moved to Chelsea in January, it was thought that he would be their backup striker. However, he quickly became their most integral forward, leading to a belated outbreak of appreciation.

It’s a familiar story for Giroud, who has had doubters his whole career. Even the French fans regularly expressed their distaste at seeing him in the team.

Giroud has come back again. He was left out of France’s squad for their first two group games in the World Cup.

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However, Deschamps restored Giroud to the team, giving them the structure they needed to win the World Cup. Despite leading the line, Giroud failed to score a world cup goal in 2018.

Is he disappointed with that? No, because now he is a world champion.

The striker spoke to Football365 about feeling respected in the wake of France’s victory.

“No, no, no (I don’t feel more respected in France) because I have been criticised a little but in France as well.

“For example, I didn’t score in the World Cup. I receive a lot of messages from people who know football well, lots of French supporters.

“They see the work I do for the team and a lot of people wanted me to score in the final.

“I said ‘yes I hope so but even if I don’t score and we are world champions it will be the best thing that has happened in my life’ so I don’t know if I have had a chance again. I tried to work for the team and I know what I can bring to the team.

“It’s the same for my team-mates. It is not one or two players or 11 players, it is 23 and that was the strength of the French team this year.”