Nicolas Anelka: God-given talent prone to self destruction
Even at 34 the young rebel's instinct to shock has not faded and he did not disappoint on Saturday in his first appearance since October in the Premier League game for his club West Brom with West Ham.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: December 29, 2013 08:20 PM IST
There has never been any doubt about Nicolas Anelka's talent, but his propensity for ruining it with controversial remarks and gestures has riddled his career.
Even at 34 the young rebel's instinct to shock has not faded and he did not disappoint on Saturday in his first appearance since October in the Premier League game for his club West Brom with West Ham.
He did what he is paid large amounts of money to do by scoring twice but destroyed any chance of creating the right headlines by celebrating with the 'quenelle' salute popularised by the anti-establishment French comedian Dieudonne, who is one of Anelka's closest friends.
The gesture has been linked to anti-Semitism in France, with French interior minister Manuel Valls calling on Friday for Dieudonne's performances to be banned -- the comedian has also made some extremely distasteful remarks in his shows about the Holocaust and about a Jewish journalist.
"This gesture was just a special dedication to my comedian friend Dieudonne," tweeted Anelka after the furore blew up.
Whether he receives any sanction for the latest controversy remains in the hands of the Football Association -- both he and his club's caretaker manager Keith Downing said he was not aware of the connotations of the 'quenelle'.
He will hope that if action is taken they are more lenient than his own Federation was after his disgraceful behaviour at the 2010 World Cup which signalled a shameful end to his international career.
He received an 18 match ban from the FFF in August 2010 for his foul-mouthed rant at coach Raymond Domenech during France's chaotic World Cup finals campaign which rubberstamped his nickname given to him earlier in his career by an English tabloid newspaper of the 'Incredible Sulk'.
"Go screw yourself, dirty son of a whore," was his reported reaction to Domenech telling him to play differently in the second-half of the group match with Mexico after a dreadful first 45 minutes of a match France lost 2-0.
Anelka tried to salvage something by sueing L'Equipe newspaper for defamation claiming that he was misquoted but he lost that one as well.
It is hard to imagine him talking to his mentor Arsene Wenger in the same way after the Frenchman took him to Arsenal from Paris Saint Germain.
Under Wenger's watchful gaze he blossomed, winning the Premier League and FA Cup double in 1998.
But he then angered Arsenal fans by engineering a long drawn out and farcical move to Real Madrid, at one point hiding in the boot of a car to escape media scrutiny into his negotiations with the Spanish giants.
Champions League glory followed in 2000 and also the Euro 2000 title but his international career since then has been blighted by tantrums which soured relations with the fans at nearly every club he has been with.
A list of 11 diffferent clubs -- he had two spells at Paris Saint Germain -- tells a story of a rootless and listless player, unable to settle.
This attitude did not sit well at international level and on two occasions he threw down the gauntlet to the national coaches. In 2003 he said in an interview in 'Paris Match' regarding then coach Jacques Santini that 'I don't need the France team.
He (Santini) would have to kneel down before me, apologise, and after that I would think about it." Anelka, married to a Belgian choreographer and father of two boys and a girl, was even more withering on the announcement that Domenech would be replacing Santini after Euro 2004.
"I don't think that I will ever play for France again so long as Raymond Domenech is in charge. Even when there are 60,000 injuries he will not pick me," he said.
However, he did earn a recall from Domenech in October 2006, a few months after France had reached the World Cup final where Zinedine Zidane marked his final match in the worst way by being sent-off.
Zidane will forever be excused by the French public for his moment of madness in headbutting Marco Matterazzi as he had been the architect of the triumph over Brazil in 1998. Anelka will not be so lucky.