Nicolas Anelka

Nicolas Sebastian Anelka (born 14 March 1979 in Versailles) is a French professional football player in the forward position, who plays for English Premier League club Bolton Wanderers. Previous clubs he has played for include Paris Saint-Germain (1996-97, 2000-02), Arsenal (1997-99), Real Madrid (1999-2000), Liverpool (2002), Manchester City (2002-2005) and Fenerbahçe (2005-2006). He won the 1998-99 PFA Young Player of the Year award.At the end of the year 2006, of the 2006-07 premiership season, Anelka is currently Bolton Wanderers leading goal-scorer.

Anelka is the son of two parents from Martinique, Marguerite and Jean-Philippe, who emigrated to Metropolitan France in 1974. He converted to Islam in 2004 and took the Muslim name Abdul-Salam Bilal.

Club career

Anelka started out at Paris Saint-Germain as a youth player. In November 1996, at the age of 17, he joined English club Arsenal for a fee of £500,000, under newly appointed Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger. His first team opportunities were limited in the 1996-97 season, but in the 1997-98 season he broke into the first team, after a long-term injury to striker Ian Wright. Anelka was a key player in Arsenal's "The Double" win, of both Premier League championship and FA Cup trophy that season. Anelka scored the second goal in Arsenal's 2-0 win over Newcastle United in that season's FA Cup final.

A player with exceptional pace and finishing ability, he won the PFA Young Player of the Year Award in the 1998-99 season, but Arsenal failed to defend their Premiership title and made little progress in the UEFA Champions League. In addition, Anelka made it clear he wanted a better salary than the one Arsenal were offering him. Rumors of his older brothers, who were his agents, galvanizing his career decisions also emerged as the star was renowned for his temperaments with his clubs, forcing him to be left with the unenviable nickname of the Incredible Sulk. He was eventually transferred to Spanish giants Real Madrid in the summer of 1999, for £22.3m. In all he made 90 appearances for Arsenal (including 17 as a substitute), scoring 28 goals and establishing himself as a top class striker.

Anelka spent just one season at Real Madrid, and played in the side that won the UEFA Champions League final, beating Valencia 3-0. However, his form was remarkably worse than it had been at Arsenal – scoring only four goals in 29 appearances – and his inability to mix with his teammates (with the exception of good friend Steve McManaman) as well as to cope with media attention led to him leaving in the summer of 2000. He began his second spell at Paris St-Germain, in a transfer deal worth £20 million.

After one season at Paris St-Germain, Anelka returned to the English Premiership, signing a one-year loan deal with Liverpool. He failed to hold down a regular first team place and manager Gérard Houllier decided not to offer him a permanent deal after the end of the season. Nevertheless, he placed 96th in the 100 Players Who Shook The Kop. Anelka opted to join newly promoted Manchester City and the £12 million fee paid by manager Kevin Keegan was a club record.

In his three seasons at Manchester City, although scoring freely, the addition of Anelka to the club's squad hardly made a drastic difference to its playing fortunes. They finished ninth in 2002-03 season, 16th in 2003-04 season and midway through the 2004-05 season they were looking set for a mid-table finish at best. There was increasing speculation as to whether Anelka was going to be transferred to a bigger club.

On January 27, 2005, the speculation ended when Manchester City announced that it had agreed a £7 million fee for Anelka's transfer to Turkish team Fenerbahçe. Anelka helped the Turkish club win the league title in 2005. In August of that same year, there was considerable speculation in the press that Anelka was being courted by Newcastle United for a return to English football, although the transfer never came about. Anelka stayed on at the Turkish club where he played with them in the UEFA Champions League, but they finished bottom of their group. They also fell short in the title race in 2006, as rivals Galatasaray won the title on the season's final day.

During the summer transfer window of 2006, press reports once again linked Anelka with a return to English football. Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was allegedly willing to either pay £8.2 million to bring the striker to Fratton Park, or take him on a season long loan. However, Bolton Wanderers swooped in and on August 25 2006, manager Sam Allardyce announced that he had signed Anelka on a four year deal for a club record of £8m. This brought his total combined transfer fees to approximately £69.8 million.

Anelka took time to settle in at Bolton, and took until 25 November 2006 to score his first goal for the club. Ironically this came in the form of a brace against Arsenal, the club that introduced him to the Premiership. In this game against Arsenal at the Reebok Stadium, he managed to score a goal in both the first and second halves of the game. The first goal,was quite remarkable, winning November's Goal of the Month award on Match of the Day.

Anelka celebrates his goals by making a butterfly sign. Interlocking his two hands and creating a flicking movement, On the 30 December 2006 Anelka Revealed to English paper The Daily Mail that the celebration was "something between me and my friends in France" it is thus assumed a celebration he wishes to keep personal.

On December 23, 2006 Anelka scored two goals against his former club Manchester City at the City of Manchester Stadium

On January 22, 2007 Anelka stated on French Network Telefoot and on ITV.COM/SPORT that he would happily leave Bolton Wanderers for a return to former club Arsenal.

International career

At junior level, Anelka played for the French junior team in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.

Anelka had made his senior team debut for France in a goalless draw with Sweden on April 21, 1998 but was overlooked for the 1998 World Cup. He was part of France's Euro 2000 and 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup squads. However, in 2002, he again was left out of the 2002 World Cup. After France's disastrous defense of their title in Japan & Korea, manager Roger Lemerre was replaced by Jacques Santini.

Anelka was not called up for international duty between 2002 and 2005, after a fallout with Santini, when he snubbed a call up for a friendly match, due to an injury. However he enjoyed a revival of sorts, as Santini's replacement Raymond Domenech recalled him to the squad for a round of friendly matches in November 2005, culminating in him scoring his first international goal for over three years in a 3-2 win over Costa Rica on the island of Martinique. As of March 2006, he has won 31 caps for France, scoring seven goals.

He was not selected for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, and even when striker Djibril Cissé was forced out of the tournament due to injury, Olympique Lyonnais' striker Sidney Govou was called up as Cissé's replacement rather than Anelka, who declared in response, "My absence is a real shame. I was completely available and ready to play in this World Cup. I think I could have helped France."