ANALYSIS – A dive, in figures, into the career of the world champion and new AC Milan striker Olivier Giroud.
1 – After only two seasons in Ligue 1, Giroud became the top scorer in Ligue 1 during the 2011-2012 season with 21 goals. That same season, Montpellier finished champion of France ahead of PSG, for the first time in its history. Arrived at La Paillade in 2010, the native of Chambéry had scored his first goal in his new colors in his first match, in the preliminary round of the Europa League.
2 – Olivier Giroud is the second top scorer for the France team with 46 goals in 110 caps. Only Thierry Henry and his 51 goals in 125 caps did better. It is Laurent Blanc, seduced by this player “atypical in size” but with “a good pivotal role”, who launched him into the deep end in 2011. A Euro 2016 final and a victory in the 2018 World Cup later, Giroud became an essential striker of the France team.
Olivier Giroud’s best goals with Chelsea
3 – In England since 2012, Olivier Giroud is the third best French scorer in the history of the Premier League. Author of 90 goals, the Frenchman is (still) behind Thierry Henry (175 goals) and Nicolas Anelka (125 goals). The one who wore successively the Arsenal and Chelsea shirts therefore left the British Isles without having reached the symbolic bar of 100 goals, but by settling on the podium of the best tricolor gunners in the Kingdom.
7 – With his sublime acrobatic kickback against Atlético de Madrid, Olivier Giroud reached 19 goals in the Champions League in 40 matches and became the 7th top French scorer in the competition. Under the tunic of Chelsea, he will have scored 6 goals in C1 despite his low playing time, which makes one goal every 38 minutes. He also won the Big Ears Cup for the first time in his career at the end of the past season.
9 – Like the number that the French striker chose to wear at AC Milan. However, since the departure of Filippo Inzaghi, no Rossoneri player with this number has succeeded in his stint at the club. A challenge that does not seem to scare him. Aligned alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who wears number 11, they will form one of the oldest attacking duos in Europe, posting 73 years combined.
11 – With 11 goals scored for Chelsea in the Europa League during the 2018-19 season, Olivier Giroud becomes the top French scorer over a European Cup season! With 17 goals scored in European competitions since 2018-19, he is also the fourth top scorer over this period (C1-C3 combined) and the first Frenchman in the standings. Only Erling Haaland, Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski do better.
24– This is the age at which Olivier Giroud discovers the highest level by signing for Montpellier, in 2010. Passed before by the Ligue 2 between Grenoble and Tours, the Frenchman is not one of the earliest, not having followed the traditional course of training centers. He will even have to emigrate to the National, to Istres, during the 2007-08 season, to have some playing time before returning to Tours where he will play with his future teammate in the French team Laurent Koscielny. Known for his tenacity and self-sacrifice, he signed 11 years later at AC Milan, after nine seasons spent in England.
550– Like the number of matches played professionally by Olivier Giroud, with an exceptional record of 221 goals and 81 assists. Arriving at AC Milan for two seasons, he could reach the bar of 600 professional matches, and who knows, maybe also that of 250 goals?
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