What a career Olivier Giroud has had since leaving Arsenal.
The France international left North London for Chelsea in 2018 and although he continues to age, he remains a lethal striker.
Last weekend, Giroud opened the scoring as Les Bleus beat Poland 3-1 to move into the quarter-final of the World Cup.
This is the same competition that the 36-year-old won six months after quitting Arsenal and by scoring on Sunday, he overtook Thierry Henry as his country’s leading goalscorer of all time.
For someone who divided opinion among Gunners’ supporters throughout his five-and-a-half year spell at the Emirates, Giroud – now at AC Milan – has achieved remarkable things in the game.
In fact, Ian Wright believes that he is the best in the whole world at fulfilling the target man role in football.
He told The Wrighty House podcast: “We have to give him his flowers. He’s broken Thierry’s record and long may that last. It’s the lack of respect he gets. Souness was so disrespectful to him. He didn’t give him no credit.
“This is what people like Graeme Souness and a lot of people don’t understand. He’s so integral to the team, whether it’s Mbappe in there or Dembele. I don’t think there’s a better target man in the world in the way that he links the play.”
You do have to admire Giroud’s longevity.
Clearly he’s a brilliant professional in terms of taking care of himself, enough to allow him keep performing at such a high level at the age of 36.
And not only that, but he’s effective, too.
If Giroud wins back-to-back World Cups, on top of the Champions League title and Serie A he’s won since leaving Arsenal, then that may wake up Souness and others to how good the player really is.
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