Finally, he stays. And even extend his lease. Olivier Giroud will continue to play at Chelsea until June 2021. The management of the English football club has exercised its option to extend the contract for the French international by one year, according to Agence France-Presse, which quotes a source. close to the case, confirming information from Sky Sport Italia.
(Re) will he play one day? Will he leave to finally find the grounds? For many months, and until this winter, the situation of Olivier Giroud, snubbed by Frank Lampard, his coach at Chelsea, had however raised many questions and caused a lot of ink to flow.
During the last winter transfer window, the situation seemed to have to be resolved: the attacker was possibly given starting in Italy (at Inter Milan, or at Lazio in Rome). But Chelsea, failing to find a suitable financial agreement and to find a replacement, had refused this departure.
"I had six difficult months, which is why I wanted to change scenery to start playing and having fun again on the field, so I tried to leave in January. I did everything I could, but Chelsea didn't want to let me go because the condition was that they had to hire a replacement. ", he had explained, at the end of March, during the program "Téléfoot", on TF1.
"Ultimately, Lampard needed me"
Since then, his position within the team had changed remarkably: finished monitoring Premier League games from the sidelines or the stands, the Frenchman, who arrived at Chelsea in winter 2018, had found, from February, all the pitches, a starting place and the way to the goals.
" The coach promised me more time and kept his word, so I just tried to take a chance. He gave me a chance and I grabbed it. Finally, Lampard needed me ", noted the attacker in "Telefoot".
Forget the blues, and here is Olivier Giroud again among the “Blues” (the nickname of Chelsea players). What give him the assurance that he can defend his chances of continuing to appear, too, in the ranks of the Blues.
His absence from the field with Chelsea had in fact somewhat weakened his position within the French team, led by Didier Deschamps. The latter had had the opportunity, on several occasions, to say that the attacker could not "Not settle for so little" playing time.
The former Montpellier and Arsenal, third top scorer in the history of the French team (39 goals in 97 caps), remains a serious contender for a starting position with the Blues in preparation for the Euro , postponed for one year (in June 2021). Even if, at 33, and in the meantime, the days that go by are not necessarily the best friends that there are.
