Nicolas Anelka

In the playing career of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Swedish forward has joined all the major clubs in Italy including: Juventus, Inter Milan and Ac.Milan, even though Ibrahimovic is 33 years old he is still wanted by some of his former clubs.

The coach of Inter Milan, Roberto Mancini recently said that he would like to bring back Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the team but the manager isn’t expecting to see Ibrahimovic leaving his current club, Paris Saint-Germain anytime soon.

The French attacker Nicolas Anelka joined Mumbai City back in September of 2014 and now he has been given a new role in the Indian club as he was recently named as the team’s player-manager.

One of the latest incidents where a player was promoted as a player-manager of a top club occurred with Chelsea when Didier Drogba was able to work alongside Jose Mourinho in Stamford Bridge and the Ivorian forward also had the chance of perming in games just in case it was needed

Former Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Arsenal striker Nicolas Anelka has effectively ended his playing career after joining Algerian outfit Nasr Athletic De Hussein-Dey as an athletic director.

When you see what Nicolas Anelka has done in his professional career, you would imagine him to be completely satisfied and have no regrets at all. But, that is not the case with the Frenchman.

Anelka thinks he could have done a few things differently during his career.

The thing which Anelka regrets the most is not being able to pen a permanent deal with Liverpool FC.

Anelka had made his way to Anfield on loan towards the end of 2001 and he spent a successful six months there.

Gerardo Martino, the new Argentina manager, has sent a positive signal to the sidelined forward Carlos Tevez. He has said that there is no reason why the Juventus player can’t make his comeback to the national team.
Tevez has been out of international football since 2011. He was not there to represent Argentina in World Cup either which was considered a shame by some people as he had a fruitful season with his club Juventus in the Italian top tier. He was the third highest scorer in the Serie A last season.

The career of the Frenchman Nicolas Anelka has been going through a dip since his last few seasons at Stamford Bridge where he made 41 league appearances during both of that campaign but only managed on scoring 7 goals. When the Premier League season of 2011-12 concluded, he was sold to the Chinese outfit Shanghai Shenhua where he was reported to earn around €12 million in his annual salary despite only scoring on 2 occasions on 22 matches.

Around 1 month ago Nicolas Anelka was fined with a €80,000 sanction as well as being banned for 5 days after the French forward made a controversial goal celebration which would ultimately conclude with Anelka terminating his contract with West Bromwich Albion as he became a free agent.

It wasn’t until a few days ago that the veteran attacker signed with a new club as he agreed to make a free transfer and join the Brazilian side Athletic Mineiro but even though everything seemed to be already done, the move has collapsed.

West Brom bought in Pepe Mel as the replacement for Steve Clarke only a few weeks ago, but results have not improved following his arrival and the club are continuously slipping towards the drop zone. This could force the club into taking an action, according to the manager himself.

Nicolas Anelka has made it clear that he doesn’t want to move away from England at this point of time.

The French player has constantly been in the news for the last few weeks due to his controversial way of celebration after finding the net in the league match against West Ham United. He has taken a bit of hammering from the Football Association for that and has been warned not to do that again on the pitch.

There were rumours that Anelka has fed up with all the criticism that he has been receiving for that goal celebration and he has started thinking seriously about transfer, but, as per the veteran striker, there is nothing like that. He is comfortable in England and isn’t willing to leave at all.

When asked about the rumours of him planning to leave England, Anelka said, “You need to have a reason to make a move away. I don’t have any at the moment. I am absolutely fine at this club and I don’t think I have done anything drastically wrong. I am just looking to concentrate on my game.”

Anelka might end up getting banned for that celebration act. His hearing is believed to take place towards the end of this month and if he is considered to be at fault, he would have to remain out for at least 5 games.

This is Anelka’s debut season at West Brom. He had signed for the club in July last year on free transfer.

He has looked good since his arrival. He has had a couple of league goals under his belt and he is believed to be the key for the Baggies in their bid to finish above the relegation zone.

West Brom is currently at no. 17 in the points table with 22 points in 23 games.

Avram Grant has said that Nicolas Anelka could have become one of the all time greats, but, he didn’t manage to do so because of his lack of temperamental skills.
Grant was the man who had signed Anelka for Chelsea 6 years back in 2008.

Anelka has changed clubs quite frequently in the recent past and that has disturbed his rhythm. He hasn’t put up too many top class performances in the last one and half years.

Currently, the 34 years old French striker is playing for the English club West Bromwich Albion. He has so far scored a couple of goals in his 8 League appearances for the Baggies.

According to Grant, Anelka is someone who has got enormous amount of talent, but, when it comes to temperament, he is not that good.

The former Chelsea boss said, “Nicolas is certainly one of the most talented players I have ever worked with. He has got the ability to do wonderful things on the pitch. His speed is fantastic and he can beat any defender in the world, but, his biggest drawback is that he is not as passionate as a sportsperson should have. He has not been eager enough to keep improving his game.”

“It’s the temperament which separates good players and great players. You need to be temperamentally good enough if you want to become one of the greats of the game and I think that’s where Nicolas is a bit behind than some of the other guys. It’s a shame really. If he had had the right kind of mentality, he would certainly have achieved greatness.”

Anelka has scored more than 200 goals playing for various clubs all around the world in his 17-year long career so far.