Olivier Giroud, who scored 105 goals for Arsenal, will stay with Lille after helping them qualify for the Champions League
Former Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud has signed a one-year contract extension with Lille, keeping him at the Ligue 1 club for another season even as he’s set to turn 40 in September.
Giroud joined Lille last season from LAFC and scored several decisive goals, including four in the Europa League, as the club finished third and qualified for the Champions League.
“I identify with Lille’s vision, a club with values I share, one that works hard and stands out from the rest through its approach and results,” the 2018 World Cup winner said in a statement.
“I always want more, and I’m determined to keep going and do even better this year.”
Giroud’s leadership was regularly praised by Lille coach Bruno Genesio, who has since been replaced by Davide Ancelotti, the son of Carlo Ancelotti.
“I don’t know Davide Ancelotti personally, but the fact that he’s a young coach is great,” Giroud said. “He’s a coach with fresh ideas. I’m convinced he has a lot to offer the club, and I’m looking forward to working with him.”
Giroud remains one of the great bargains of the Arsene Wenger era at Arsenal. Signed from Montpellier in the summer of 2012 for a reported fee of about £12m, he arrived after helping the French club win a shock Ligue 1 title and was brought in to provide a more physical penalty-box presence following Robin van Persie’s departure.
Across six seasons in north London, Giroud scored 105 goals and provided 38 assists in 253 appearances in all competitions, despite being widely panned in the media and referred to as a ‘flop’.
He also won three FA Cups and three Community Shields, and his scorpion kick against Crystal Palace in 2017 earned the FIFA Puskas Award.
By the time he left in January 2018, he was seventh on Arsenal’s all-time scoring list.
Giroud moved to Chelsea in the final days of the January 2018 window, in a deal that helped Arsenal complete the signing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Chelsea paid around £15m for a player who was then 31 and had 18 months left on his Arsenal contract.
He scored 39 goals and registered 14 assists in 119 appearances at Stamford Bridge, winning the Champions League in 2020-21 after finishing as Chelsea’s top scorer in that European campaign with six goals, including all four in a 4-0 group-stage win at Sevilla.
In July 2021, Giroud moved to Milan, where he spent three seasons and won Serie A in 2021-22. He then joined Los Angeles FC in Major League Soccer, signing a deal through 2025 with an option for 2026, before returning to Europe with Lille in 2025.
Giroud described Lille as “most certainly” the final club of his career, but his extension means that career will continue into another season. It is another measure of his longevity, more than a decade after leaving Montpellier for Arsenal and two years after retiring from international football as France’s all-time leading goalscorer.
He scored 57 goals in 137 games for France during a 13-year international career, though his record could soon be overtaken by Kylian Mbappe, who has 56. Mbappe had hoped to match that record against Northern Ireland on Monday night, but his desperation to score was evident. He finished the night with five shots, all off target, some of them wildly.
Across spells with Montpellier, Arsenal, Chelsea, Milan, Los Angeles FC and Lille, Giroud has built a career of more than 300 club goals, 800 appearances and major honours in England, France, Italy and with his country.
For Arsenal supporters, he remains an undervalued player, a £12m signing who gave the club six seasons of goals, trophies and moments of genuine quality and will retire, eventually, with league titles from two European countries, five cups, a Champions League, Europa League, UEFA Nations League and a World Cup.
Not bad for a ‘flop’.
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