European Champion, World Champion and his nation's top scorer, yet under appreciated.
When planning this post, I was initially going to explore how good Olivier Giroud was, assuming that the twilight of his career would continue to be played out as an LAFC player, or in a different lesser lesser-appreciated league. Instead, after a singular year in the MLS, the 38-year-old is set to return to his home nation of France as a free agent to play for four-time champions of Ligue 1 LOSC Lille.
Lille finished 5th in Ligue 1 last season, amassing 60 points in total, only 5 points off penultimate finishers Marseille, securing Europa League football for the upcoming season. Lille boast a strong squad, with a mix of promising youngsters such as Lucas Chevalier, Ethan Mbappe and Hakon Arnar Haraldsson, and seasoned veterans such as Thomas Meunier, Andre Gomes and now Olivier Giroud. Giroud himself, in his final press conference as an LAFC player, referenced his excitement at the opportunity, stating that Lille "ticked a lot of boxes" for him and his family.
It may be the case that the Frenchman will play a bigger role than expected in the upcoming season, with Chuba Akpom returning to his parent club Ajax, and Jonathan David looking to be on his way out; therefore, it may be the case that we have not seen the last of Giroud's impact in French and European football.
Personally, I often reference Giroud as one of my favourite players to play the game. I myself am a Chelsea fan, but would not consider myself that of a nostalgic or sentimental football fan. Once a player leaves the club I support, they are no longer a player I care about or have much of a connection with what happens in their career post-Chelsea means not to me. However, when Giroud left, after the 2020/21 season, I recall firstly being rather disheartened and secondly eager to see where he went next. The following season, Giroud clinched the Serie A title with AC Milan, scoring 11 league goals in the process, and I remember being so overtly happy for him.
But what makes Giroud so special? Purely looking at his career statistics, he's clearly a capable striker, with 348 career goals in 893 appearances, but never prolific per se, with his highest league goal tally being 21 in the 2011/12 Ligue 1 season for Montpellier. Modern football will suggest that if a striker is not doing their titular requirement of putting the ball in the net regularly, they're not a good striker, but I wouldn't always agree, and raise you Giroud as a prominent case study. Here are some of the reasons I consider Giroud as a special player:
His style of play.
Giroud is an old-school type of footballer. A big man up top, who usually plays as the primary 9, who throws his weight around and bullies defenders. He's what your dad would call a 'proper player'. His tenacity to get past players and physical prowess to usually end up getting some part of his body to the ball, makes him a nightmare for defenders.
In an interview with The Overlap in 2022, current Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk named Giroud as the 'Hardest striker' he'd ever faced in his career, stating that "in some way, he always managed to score" and labelling the Frenchman as "annoying" to play against.
As well as getting past, or usually through, defenders, Giroud has an innate ability to involve his teammates in attack. Being 6 foot 3 inches tall and 92kg (TNT Sports, 2025), he's naturally adept at holdup play, using his strength and technical ability with possession to delay play and create space for his fellow attackers. Statistically, Giroud has assisted 114 times in his career thus far, a high number for an out-and-out traditional style of play 9, and it's not only because he's great at hold-up play, he's also wonderfully technical with the ball in tight situations.
The prime example of this? His assist for Jack Wilshire in a 4-1 drubbing of Norwich City on the 19th of October 2013. Surrounded by four Norwich City defenders, Giroud plays a brilliant one-two with his number 10, firstly using the outside of his left foot to guide the ball in Wilshire's direction before, on the ball's return, first-time chipping the ball through the four bewildered defenders for Jack Wilshire to volley it past John Ruddy in net. A goal often touted as one of the best team goals in Premier League history, made so special by a special number 12.
His goal catalogue.
Why do we watch football? What makes people fall in love with football? Goals, beautiful goals, and Giroud may have one of the very best goal catalogues in football. It's often joked online that if you showed someone, with no prior football knowledge, Giroud's honours lists and best goals, they'd think he was the best player to grace the game.
His goals include moves of technical brilliance, such as his finish against Southampton on the 22nd of April 2018 in the FA Cup semi-final, where he danced through four defenders before doing the same to the keeper and slotting it away. But he was also known to score a screamer or two, like his overhead kick versus Atletico Madrid in the Champions League Round of 16 on the 23rd of February 2021, and his Puskas Award-winning scorpion kick against Crystal Palace on New Year's Day of 2017.
Though these types of goals have been sporadic in his 348 career total so far, the mere knowledge that he could pull off these types of finishes granted fans a level of excitement when Giroud was on the pitch, knowing that he may attempt moves or strikes that other players would be too worried or not technical enough to try.
For your viewing pleasure, I've attached a YouTube video of the great man's best goals by NecbY Football
(Credit: GettyImages)
His mentality.
The reason I was most infatuated and impressed by Giroud at Chelsea, above all else, was his mentality. He always cared about my team; he always wanted to do well for my team. You could see it in his runs, in his movements, in the sheer amount of desire to get the ball over the white line. He was also happy to do what was needed for the team, he came to Chelsea before the start of the 18/19 season without the guarantee of a starting role, with Higuian and Morata both at the club. That season Giroud only started 7 games in the league netting twice, but where he really came to life was in the Europa League, making 14 appearances, starting 12 and scoring 11. A Europa League run which famously ended in a 4-1 thrashing of his former employers Arsenal in Baku, where he scored the opener. The following season, after Higuain's loan ended and Morata left the club, Giroud may have fancied his chances as Chelsea's starting striker; however, a certain 22-year-old Cobham graduate, Tammy Abraham, changed this. Still, Giroud made 25 appearances, scoring 10 goals in all competitions, and never once complained, mirroring his unselfish style of play with his mentality.
This resilient, unproblematic, can-do attitude was not something new for Giroud. Legendary Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger praised the striker in 2014, stating, "I believe in his mentality, he's a positive guy. Even when he misses something, people forgive him because he has a positive mental impact with the physical impact as well." Giroud clearly means a lot to the teams he plays for.
Perhaps the most famous example of Giroud's footballing attitude is when he stepped into the Milan net when goalkeeper Mike Maignan was sent off in a league game versus Genoa on the 7th of October 2023. Maignan was sent off in the 98th minute of a game that concluded in the 103rd, meaning he had to play in net for five minutes with the game at 1-0 to Milan. Giroud stepped up and actually made a handful of impressive saves, keeping the score at 1-0 for three points for The Rossoneri. Giroud even managed to land himself the goalkeeper spot in that week's Serie A Team of the Week.
(Credit: Daniele Mascolo/Reuters)
France's all-time top scorer still has pages to be written in French and European football, and I personally can't wait to see him play in one of the top five leagues again.
Let's hope for a couple screamers from him along the way!
Bonne chance Oli!
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