Giroud celebrates his 40th birthday on television and opens up about his remarkable career

Olivier Giroud will blow out his 40 candles on September 30 during a special broadcast on Canal+ Foot, in the company of his footballer friends Christophe Jallet, Robert Pirès and Mathieu Debuchy.

The format, lasting more than an hour, promises a more talkative Giroud than usual. The striker, who is in his second season at Lille, will address his future reconversion, the criticism that has marked his career, missed transfers and his thirteen years spent abroad. Birthday messages from former teammates and anecdotes about his rich career are also planned.

Giroud’s career certainly offers plenty of material. Quietly trained at Grenoble, Istres and Tours, he came to public attention in the Montpellier shirt, with whom he won the French championship in 2012. What followed was European and prolific: Arsenal, Chelsea, AC Milan, before a spell in MLS at Los Angeles Galaxy. In the meantime, he won the 2018 World Cup with the France national team, becoming in the process the all-time leading goalscorer for the Blues with 57 goals.

At 40, Giroud continues to play in Ligue 1 with Lille, for now refusing to definitively close the book on his playing career. This broadcast will nevertheless be a first opportunity to hear him discuss life after football with a certain freedom of expression.