Sylvain Wiltord, the sad end

Yet older than Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet (two natives of 1977 when he was born in 1974), Sylvain Wiltord was still far from the French team in 1998 and is therefore not world champion. The player trained at Stade Rennais nevertheless exploded with the Red and Black in the 1995-1996 season (15 goals in D1), but it was by joining the Girondins de Bordeaux, in 1997, that he then asserted himself as a high-level attacker. Alongside Lilian Laslandes, Johan Micoud and Ali Bernarbia, Wiltord scored 22 goals during the title of champion of France in 1999 acquired at the expense of OM.

Sylvain Wiltord joined Arsenal in the summer of 2000, a few days after having one of the heroes of the Blues in the final of Euro 2000 won against Italy. “Nino” (its nickname from the training center, in reference to a film with Wesley Snipes) entered the 58th minute in place of Christophe Dugarry to equalize in the 94th minute of the second period in order to calm Azzurri on the verge of slashing champagne. David Trezeguet scored the golden goal of the meeting in the 103rd minute of the extension.

During the European championship organized in the Netherlands and in Belgium, Wiltord was in the upper iron with the Girondins, who absolutely did not want to sell it for less than an XXL offer. His former agent Marc Roger tells RMC: “Arsène Wenger actually wanted to associate Sylvain Wiltord with Thierry Henry. The transfer lasted a lot of time because Arsène Wenger had paid 74 million (francs, editor's note) For Thierry Henry a year before, and there we finished 140 million, double in a year … that did a lot and that's why it lasted for several weeks. Arsène Wenger really wanted Sylvain Wiltord and the Girondins de Bordeaux realized that they could not remember it ”.

Wiltord rather than Pauleta

The imbroglio was total. Marc Roger was cold with President Jean-Louis Triaud (“He didn't want us to talk to each other anymore, so we didn't talk about ourselves”), but found a fairly amazing solution. Sylvain Wiltord had indeed signed a pre-contract with the Deportivo La Coruchne (which would make a much less expensive transfer than Arsenal) and the agent then proposed to the Bordeaux leaders to recruit, as compensation for the Deport, a man named Pedro Miguel Pauleta. “I convinced (the sports director) Charles Camporro to take an interest in Pauleta by telling him that he would come, would score a lot of goals, that he was a great player. However, he was the third striker at the time of the Corugin, he was replacement “says Marc Roger. Pauleta was going behind Diego Tristan and Roy Makaay but scored enough liga goals to be in the sight of English clubs.

Finally recruited by Arsène Wenger from the Gunners at the end of two months of intense negotiations, Sylvain Wiltord found Patrick Vieira, Robert Pirès and Thierry Henry at the Gunners, but first played the lining (in front or on the wings), Dennis Bergkamp being still active. The striker thus scored 8 goals in the Premier League but 6 in FA Cup to a lost final against Liverpool. The future Lyonnais and Marseille was then champion twice (2002 and 2004) and won two England Cup (2002 and 2003).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQSXE1DPSAW