Nicolas Anelka won the Champions League as a young star with Real Madrid, but was still a flop. In a documentary he reveals bitter experiences.
He was top scorer in the Premier League with FC Arsenal, European champion with France, Champions League winner with Real Madrid.
But Nicolas Anelka is not only remembered as a gifted footballer, but also for his scandals: his expulsion at the 2010 World Cup after a vulgar insult to national coach Raymond Domenech, the scandal surrounding the 2013 quenelles greeting, which was burdened by an extreme right-wing and anti-Semitic context.
In a Netflix documentary with the programmatic title “Anelka: Misunderstood”, the now 41-year-old now tries to put a few things straight and tells his view of his career.
Among other things, he tells of his painful experiences with the club where he celebrated his greatest success.
Nicolas Anelka was attacked directly
In retrospect, Anelka describes his time at Real Madrid in the 1999/2000 season as a “nightmare” that would have begun on his first day at work.
“After the press conference I went into the dressing room,” he says. “I was there first, sat down, but one player after another came and said, ‘This is my seat. Again and again he would have apologized and asked for another seat, again and again that would have been taken away from him as well.