AC Milan red and black are the perfect colors to describe Olivier Giroud’s career. If he is not a Stendahlian hero, the Frenchman has a destiny worthy of a novel. Not summoned to the Blues during the last list unveiled by Didier Deschamps, on May 19, the attacker replied in his own way. In the field. Like always. A new holder and decisive at the forefront of the Lombard attack, he scored twice on the lawn of Sassuolo (0-3), which allowed the Rossoneri to land their first Scudetto in 11 years.
History, with him, is an eternal recommencement. We no longer count the number of times he was taken out the door to better come back through the window. He is said to be technically too frustrating, he is constantly pitted against other attackers with different profiles, but he always rises from his ashes. How to explain such a rebound capacity? For Alain Giresse, it is not pride that pushes him upwards. “It would be too tiring for him”, jokes the former international. “He suffers the choices and the comments but that does not disturb him. He does his thing, that’s all”he continues.
So it would be in his ability to turn a deaf ear to criticism that Olivier Giroud’s secret would lie? “He is not subject to emotions”continues Alain Giresse. “He makes no noise, no rowdy declarations, he does not reveal his moods…” Giroud, cantor of ataraxia? Not only. If, at 35, he continues to be so decisive, it is also thanks to immense professional qualities which have found the ideal place to assert themselves in Milan.
“I had the opportunity to discuss Olivier with Paolo Maldini [légende du club et actuel directeur technique]Frederic Massara [le directeur sportif] and Stefano Pioli [l’entraîneur] during a recent trip to the Milanello training center”says our consultant Eric Roy. “The three have only one word to define him: a great champion”. To hear, from the mouths of Italians for whom football is serious business, “someone who is extremely professional in the way he prepares himself physically and possesses an irreproachable state of mind”.
Eric Roy is therefore the first to regret the trial of intent against the one who revealed himself under the colors of Tours. “He was not always well treated, it even sometimes turned into fierceness”, he observes. “He has always been instrumental in the success of the French team and now we don’t rely too much on him”. However, despite his age, Olivier Giroud continues to weigh on the defenses as on the statistics. Arriving from Chelsea to Milan as Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s understudy, the Frenchman once again bided his time to make himself indispensable.
In the red and black jersey, the ex-Gunner planted 11 goals in 22 starts. And, among these 11 achievements, all or almost all proved decisive, such as that recorded in Naples in March or the double at the expense of Inter a month earlier.
Olivier #Giroud becomes the oldest striker to score at least 10 goals (11) in #SerieA
— GuillaumeMP (@Guillaumemp) May 22, 2022
His consistency and longevity can only command respect. And yet Didier Deschamps did not call the second goalscorer in the history of the Blues (48 goals, three units from Thierry Henry’s record) for the next matches in the League of Nations for the France team. The coach split a lapidary “I can’t make a feeling” to comment on his decision. He who has so often defended his player in the past cannot however ignore the umpteenth rebirth of Olivier Giroud.