Nicolas Anelka: teenage prodigy, transfer-fee titan, complex and often controversial character, football manager.
If the latest move in a career signposted by some of the world’s most prominent clubs jars just a little, seems an unlikely transition for a footballing nomad fastened tight to his convictions, then Anelka wears it well.
The Frenchman sits in an executive room at the Oberoi Hotel in Dubai’s Business Bay, dressed in what is effectively his occupational attire, top to toe in red. But it is not the red of Arsenal, the club that launched him, or the red of Liverpool, his employers during a brief spell between 2001 and 2002.
Instead, Anelka sports Mumbai City FC red, the Indian Super League (ISL) franchise he represented in the competition’s inaugural season last year. He returns for the 2015 campaign in a slightly different guise. Intriguingly, Anelka enters the second ISL season, beginning Saturday, not only as the team’s marquee player, but as their manager, too.
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Yet the conversion from player to coach has apparently been smooth. For a striker known to shoot from the hip, that could be viewed as somewhat unexpected. Anelka disagrees.
“Not at all,” he says, smiling. “Because I’ve worked with a lot of managers, at a lot of clubs, in a lot of countries. I won’t say I know everything about football, but I know the game, understand how it works.
“I know how to speak to players, because I’ve worked with so many different managers. I realise what is good to do and what’s bad, what’s the right thing to say and what’s not. Of course that makes it easier for me. So to me, it’s not a surprise.”
He can claim to have learnt from some of the best. Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, Vicente del Bosque at Real Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea. Anelka’s career has taken him to 12 clubs across seven countries, to two Premier League titles and the Uefa Champions League trophy, to success at the 2000 European Championship with the France national team.
He has accumulated approximately £120 million (Dh667m) in transfer fees, estimated to be behind only James Rodriguez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Angel Di Maria. At £22.3m, he was once the record signing for Madrid, the game’s great spenders. So, of course, he has picked up a thing or two along the way. Some managers, though, have shaped him more than others.
“I enjoyed my time with Carlo Ancelotti,” Anelka says. “We had a good relationship. When you’re on the training pitch with Carlo, you know you’ll enjoy it and so that transfers to your game. But it was especially the way he acts with players, that was his best quality.
“But I also liked my time with Kevin Keegan at Manchester City. He was good fun, because he was a striker and I learnt a lot from him. And, of course, Arsene Wenger. He placed a lot of trust in me when I was very young. Trust was important.”
Anelka has carried that belief with him, however misplaced or misjudged, through the fighting and the fallouts at Arsenal, Madrid, Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Shanghai Shenhua, West Bromich Albion and France. If those episodes have scarred, they have also formed him, made him, at age 36, wiser and wilier, even.
“The most important quality I’ve taken from my managers is the way you should act with players,” he says. “Football is football, but as a manager you have 25 guys and you need to know how to speak with each of them. You need to be straight with them, even in the difficult times.
“Players don’t like it when a manager says something and does the opposite after. Or when you have a good game a manager speaks to you, but after a bad game doesn’t. So I know what to do, how to deal with these situations, because I’ve experienced them as a player.
“And I always said if one day I become a manager this is something I will never do. When you’re winning games and everything is nice, it’s easy. The difficult moment is to have a good reaction when it’s hard. That’s what I want to do best. And I think I know how to do it.”
It will be interesting to see how Anelka survives in the admittedly less-pressurised environs of Mumbai City, where he succeeds England’s Peter Reid as coach. Crucially, he knows what he is walking into.
Signed as the franchise’s star man last November, Anelka played seven matches, scoring twice. But Mumbai struggled, eventually finishing seventh in the eight-team league. Now, he is charged with leading off the pitch, as well as on it.
Anelka has been provided significant assistance from those above him; Ranbir Kapoor, the Bollywood actor, co-owns Mumbai, so the interest and investment in the team has been substantial.
Other than Anelka, the 2015 squad boasts Darren O’Dea, the former Celtic defender, Andre Moritz, the former Internacional and Fluminense midfielder, and Frederic Piquionne, once a forward with Lyon.
There is a talented home-grown contingent, as well. The ISL caps each team’s foreign quota at 10 – eight is the minimum – so Mumbai opted to recruit one of the country’s most recognisable footballers in Sunil Chhetri, the India national team captain.
Anelka labels it a “good mix”, integral to helping develop football in what is a cricket heartland. India may be the second most populous country on the planet, but they languish 167th in the Fifa world rankings. The idea is that the ISL can push the progress.
“India needs this league,” he says. ”People can come and try to teach them what is the high level. More quality of players, more big names – it’s a long process, but I believe in what I see. The organisers want to do big things. Last year was big – they had 50,000 people in the stadium for the first match – but they want it to be even bigger, even better.
“Of course, the first sport is cricket, but the people love football, especially English football. And they want to see not just football, but beautiful football. The only way to do that is bringing more big names, which has happened this year, and will happen more and more next season and the years after.”
This season’s competition has a number of well-known participants, among them Lucio, Florent Malouda, John Arne Riise, Adrian Mutu, Elano and Simao. Zico coaches FC Goa, Roberto Carlos and Marco Materazzi manage Delhi Dynamos and Chennaiyin FC, respectively.
Anelka welcomes the additions, saying Indian football will undoubtedly benefit.
“The talent is there, but they just need some people to work on the tactics,” he says. “I can see on the pitch that there is quality, both technically and physically. The base is already there. They’re missing only the tactics and they just need to learn this, how to be more clever on the pitch.
“But they want to learn. The players are there, listening and taking on board what you say. As soon as they get smarter tactically, it will be a very big step. Indian football will become very big.”
Under its present format, the ISL’s regular season runs from October 3 to December 6, with the four-team play-offs taking place from December 11-20. There have been rumours the competition will soon extend to six months, or even nine, to bring it in line with established leagues around the world.
Anelka agrees, yet Monday’s league opener against David Platt’s FC Pune City is a more immediate focus. That, and a place in the play-offs later this year.
“We’re stronger this season,” he says. “Expectations are to be better than last year, but we want to finish in the top four positions, to get into the semi-finals. Communication will be very important. And that comes from the manager. That comes from me.”
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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