Arsenal legend Martin Keown has spoken about how Nicolas Anelka was "misunderstood" and "underappreciated" at the club.
Anelka played for a plethora of European giants in his decorated career and joined Arsenal as a 17-year-old from Paris Saint-Germain in 1997.
Arsenal paid £500,000 for Anelka, who fired the Gunners to a Premier League and FA Cup double after Ian Wright's injury in the 1997/98 season.
He scored 17 Premier League goals the following season and won the PFA Young Player of the Year award.
Advert
But he was given the nickname 'Le Sulk' for what some perceived as an arrogant attitude and revealed he wished to leave the club.
He signed for Real Madrid in a £22 million deal and won the Champions League in his debut campaign.
Despite a successful career, Anelka has expressed regret over his departure and former teammate Keown spoke highly of him.
“He was a truly magnificent player who was never given the credit he deserved,” Keown told talkSPORT.
“He left Arsenal far too soon. He was misunderstood, he was a great kid. He didn’t speak English too well and I think people mistook that for being arrogant and distant."
Anelka was unplayable in the peak of his powers and toyed with some of the very best defenders in the business.
And that included his own teammates, with Keown recalling the time skipper Tony Adams was left seething after struggling against him in training.
“I remember we did 1v1s one day. Tony [Adams] had the misfortune of being with him. They had to send Tony in because he was so angry he couldn’t get anywhere near him.
“He [Anelka] had no backlift; he was like a gazelle. [Thierry] Henry took over, what a replacement that was. I’d have loved to have seen the pair of them in the same Arsenal team.
“When he first came in, nobody had any idea of Anelka. You saw the opposition responding and I’d been training with him all week and I was giggling because they had no idea what they were going to be up against."
Anelka later turned out for a slew of Premier League sides, including Liverpool, Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea and West Brom.
He scored 125 goals in 364 appearances.
Topics: Arsenal
Josh Lawless