Subscribed to the bench at Chelsea, French international striker Olivier Giroud will discover Serie A next season in the jersey of AC Milan, where he will allow the star of the team, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, to breathe more often.
The Italian club formalized Saturday, July 17 the arrival of Olivier Giroud for a duration and an unspecified amount. The 2018 world champion will wear the number 9.
Soon to be 35, Olivier Giroud thus arrives in a championship where the age of the attackers does not generally prevent them from shining. In addition to “Ibra” and his almost 40 years, still spearhead and soul of the Rossoneri, the Serie A nets still often tremble on strikes from Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus Turin), top scorer last season at 36 with 29 achievements, or Fabio Quagliarella, top scorer in activity, and who at 38 extended the adventure for another year with Sampdoria in Genoa.
Far from the English lawns, where the youth is much more highlighted, and after a difficult Euro, lived in the shadow of the great ghost Karim Benzema, Olivier Giroud will discover a third European championship. After having cut his teeth in Ligue 2, the native of Chambéry had played in Ligue 1 in Montpellier (2010-12, with a league title in 2012) before joining the Premier League in England (Arsenal from 2012 to January 2018, Chelsea since). With a nice track record during these years across the Channel: four English Cups, a Europa League, and the Champions League this season.
With Mike Maignan and Theo Hernandez
Chelsea announced in early June the extension of Olivier Giroud until June 2022 under a clause of his contract, but the player never intended to continue with the Blues, too often left on the bench at its taste by trainer, Thomas Tuchel.
In Milan, the Frenchman seems to have the shoulders and the experience to represent a different and coherent proposition to Ibrahimovic, and thus allow the coach, Stefano Pioli, to better manage the Swede – who has hardly played more than one match in two last season due to several injuries and the Covid-19.
Hit in the left knee at the end of the season, an injury that deprived him of the Euro with Sweden, Ibra had been operated on June 18, and no one yet really knows when he will be ready to start the season 100%.
Mario Mandzukic, recruited in January to take on this role of “vice-Ibra”, had not been able to fulfill this role either because of a weak physique. The Croatian had ended up leaving Lombardy after just a few months.
Olivier Giroud, with his physique and his ability to play with his back to goal, seems to have the right characteristics to blend into a one-point system carved out by Stefano Pioli for Ibra. Seeing the two aligned together, however, looks less likely, even if the Italian press does not completely rule out such an option.
The one that his friends call the “Grenoble phoenix” will also be able to share his experience in a team with little experience at the international level, and which will undoubtedly need his support in the Champions League.
Olivier Giroud will also find a very French Milan, with in particular Theo Hernandez, brother of international Lucas Hernandez (Bayern Munich), as well as the third goalkeeper of the Blues, Mike Maignan, recruited in Lille to fill the huge hole left in the goals by the departure to PSG of the European champion, Gianluigi Donnarumma.