Olivier Giroud
Position: Striker
Age: 35/36 (born September 36, 1986)
Shirt number: 9
Country: France (48 goals in 112 caps since 2011)
At AC Milan since: 2021
AC Milan had found a gem in Olivier Giroud, with the World Cup winner provided needed leadership alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic as they have ended a long road back to the top of the Serie A.
The French striker did not reach the top-flight until 2010, and before that he spent his first five years of his footballing career in the second and third tiers with Grenoble and Tours with a loan spell at Istres in between.
Giroud broke out in the 2011-12 campaign, in which he led Montpellier to its first (and so far, only) Ligue 1 title, sharing the goalscoring charts with PSG’s Nene with 21 goals but won the Golden Boot having scored more from open play.
After their title conquest, Arsenal duly snapped him for €12 million, as he played them until the middle of the 2017-18 campaign where he signed an 18-month deal with London rivals Chelsea. With the Gunners, he won the FA Cup thrice.
Despite a huge dip in production during his stay at Stamford Bridge, success followed Giroud, in which he had won an FA Cup, a Europa League and the Champions League in four seasons, despite having as many managers as possible in that span.
In 2021, Milan took him on a two-year deal, and revived his form somehow by scoring 11 Serie A goals, including a brace on the final day away at Sassuolo as he won the Scudetto, a decade since he last won a league title.
His towering presence was vital for the Les Bleus, as he won his maiden cap in 2011. One-hundred and eleven appearances later, he scored 48 times and had been part of the France squad in five successive tournaments, capping it off with a 2018 triumph in Russia.