Arsenal: Olivier Giroud Mingling With Elite Company
By Josh Sippie
Olivier Giroud vaulted into some special company during international break and it’s about time that Arsenal nation accepts that he is more than average.
Arsenal has stuck with OIivier Giroud through the good, the bad and the ugly. But there has also been some great in there. Built a system around Giroud and he will reward you. He always has. Get him service, he will score. Let him link-up play and he will get assists. That’s how he is.
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His only failings come when people expect him to be something he isn’t. There are players out there that can do it all. Ronaldo, for instance, is the best of the bunch, capable of anything. But the overwhelming majority of players need some sort of support to succeed and Giroud is no exception. With the right support, he does succeed and he has the talent to take a team all the way to the title.
And to anyone that wants to claim that he isn’t anything special, Giroud has always had answers. His most recent answer was to score (again) for France and elevate himself into the Top 10 scorers in French international footballing history.
No big deal, he’s just brushing shoulders with Jean Vincent and Jean-Pierre Papin. You know, average footballers like that.
The thing that you also have to remember about Giroud is that he was a late bloomer. He wasn’t called into the French national side until he was 26 years old in 2012. By that time, Thierry Henry already had 25 international goals.
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Even with the slow start to his career, Giroud has still worked his way into some elite company and he hasn’t exactly done it against easy opposition. He has scored in his only World Cup, he was a pivotal figure in France’s Euro 2016 run. He hasn’t just been beating up on the little guys to rack up his 20+ goals and become one of the top ten best goal scorers in French history.
And that is, obviously, a pretty stacked history full of talents. A history that will always have room to include Olivier Giroud, despite the nasty reception he gets from supporters of both club and country.
History has a way of fondly remembering those who deserve it. Hopefully that means that when Giroud calls it a career, it will only be a matter of time before he is appreciated more fully for what he has done and what he has given to both of the badges he wore.
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Next stop, 100 goals for Arsenal. And rest assured, he will join that exclusive club too.