When Jason Cummings took to Instagram with his new pride and joy on Tuesday — an AC Milan jersey signed by Olivier Giroud — it reminded me of my own interaction with France’s all-time leading goalscorer.
Cummings revealed back in December that he’d asked Giroud to swap shirts after missing out on Kylian Mbappe’s after the Socceroos’ 4-1 loss to France in the opening game of the FIFA Men’s World Cup. At the time, he joked that the French star had pretended he didn’t speak English to avoid speaking to speaking to the Aussie-born Scot.
READ: BRILLIANT FULL STORY OF HOW GIROUD ENDED UP WITH A MARINERS KIT
Giroud showed his sense of humour a short time later by posting a photo on Twitter of Jackson Irvine’s Socceroo’s jersey, quipping: “How’s my English, mate?”
The fact that Giroud reached out privately to Cummings on Instagram to make the exchange happen says a lot about the type of person he is. It would have been far easier for the former Arsenal and Chelsea forward to go about his business, but he chose to go out of his way to make the swap happen.
That’s something I also experienced firsthand.
Back in July 2017, I was preparing for my second season with Western Sydney Wanderers; part of the pre-season was an exhibition match against Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. They had just signed Alexandre Lacazette for €53million, who lined up in a front three with Alex Iwobi and Giroud.
During the week, Wanderers head coach Tony Popovic worked with our back four about blocking the runs of attacking players when they looked to run in behind. It was more about making the striker run around you and not giving them a clear path to run onto any potential through balls.
In the 23rd minute of the 3-1 loss to the Gunners, Giroud – who was leading the line – looked to arc his run and get in behind our defence. Aaron Ramsey had time on the ball, so when Giroud looked to make his run, I stepped across him and floored him. It wasn’t that I was physically bigger than him; he’s a man mountain and easily had me covered for strength. It was just something he didn’t expect or see coming as he was looking to make eye contact with Ramsey.
I offered a hand to help him back to his feet, but he was having none of it, brushed me off, and was far from impressed. I really didn’t give a shit and knew Popa would probably be pleased that I’d impacted the play and put into practise what we’d worked on, even if I was a little overzealous.
There was some niggle throughout the remainder of the first half, but we went into half-time without incident, apart from being 3-0 down, of course.
At the start of the second half, as the play started, a similar scenario was unfolding, but you’re not going to fool a player with that experience twice. As I went to block his run this time, he stepped in behind me and jumped to avoid my legs, dropping an elbow and flailing his arms straight on top of my head. As he ran off, he glanced back, and we shared a grin and a smile. One all!
In the second half, there was a flurry of changes, and in the 66th minute, he was subbed off with a goal to his name. At some point after that, there was a lull in the match — a stoppage for whatever reason. As I stood there, soaking in the more than 80,000 strong crowd, my eyes wandered over to the Gunners’ bench.
At that moment, Giroud was staring straight at me, and for whatever reason, we both started laughing, having both enjoyed the running battle.
The game would end with a loss and plenty of memories, but the best was yet to come. I was keen to ask for his jersey, but amongst the sea of people on the pitch post-game, I couldn’t actually see him. I wasn’t brave enough to ask someone else to get it for me, so I went back to the change rooms without much thought.
Sitting there quietly reflecting on the match, an Arsenal staff member came into our rooms looking for me. In his hand was the No. 12 of the Arsenal man. He handed it to me and said:
Olivier wanted you to have this.
It meant a lot to me that, without actually asking him for it, he knew I would want it. In some way, I felt I had earned his respect.
Like he did with Cummings, he went out of his way for someone he didn’t have to. It would be easy for him not to reach out to the Central Coast Mariners striker, and I would have thought nothing if I hadn’t been handed his shirt.
But he’s thoughtful, and I think it shows what a gentleman Olivier Giroud is.
