Only the elite know how it feels. That moment when the final whistle blows, the din around you becomes white noise and your brain is telling you that you have won the World Cup but your emotions cannot really process the thought.
Olivier Giroud knows that feeling.
‘I came off 10 minutes before the end of the game, sat down on the bench and was just looking around,’ he says of last summer’s World Cup final in Moscow, where he started for France against Croatia.
Olivier Giroud's faith in God is helping him fuel his hunger to succeed at Chelsea at age 32
Olivier Giroud is now a World Cup winner, and describes not quite processing it when they won
After being behind Lacazette and Aubameyang at Arsenal, he found himself behind Higuain
‘The atmosphere is really different from when you are on the pitch. [On the bench] you can smell the victory is coming! ‘One of my childhood friends told me a day before the final: “You used to tell us that one day you would become world champion!” My very close friends reminded me of that. And it was magic!’
Olivier Giroud wears his Christian faith on his sleeve. A tattoo on his right arm reads: ‘Dominus regit me et nihil mihi deerit’. The first line of Psalm 23 translates as: ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.’
He laughs at the absurdity of 10-year-old Giroud, from the Alpine village of Froges, announcing that he would win the World Cup.
‘I believe we all say things like that!’ he says. Froges, near Grenoble, is not exactly a major football hotspot. In fact, Giroud was a decent skier and intends to return to the sport on retirement.
‘Basically, when the referee blew the whistle, I just needed to run, I don’t know where. I was running and I jumped on the ground, crying. One of my team-mates jumped on me as well. It was very intense joy. Like happiness, even more. I don’t cry many times in my life regarding success and nice things. But I couldn’t keep it from me. It was like: “Wow!” I released all the emotion!
‘And after that I had the opportunity to celebrate with my parents. Everything went so quick! But I will enjoy it for ever. And we will remind each other of these memories for ever.
‘The best moment was when I was on the pitch with my daughter [Jade]. She was five years old. Bless her. We took a picture of her kissing the World Cup on the pitch and in the dressing room with French president. It’s going to be for ever for her as well!’
However, the striker has good stats, essentially scoring 122 goals in 210 club appearances
That broad smile is now lighting up the room. Giroud is engaged in recalling the memory and adds an intriguing footnote.
‘I’m very religious so, at that moment, I just thanked God. I was very grateful to have the opportunity to live my dream. To live every single day for me is a day blessed.’
Giroud points to his right arm on which he has ‘Dominus regit me et nihil mihi deerit’ tattooed, which translates as: ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.’ It is from Psalm 23. Giroud has a deepening Christian faith which he is developing in London.
His mother used to take him to church as a child and he makes a point of describing himself as Christian, rather than confining himself to any particular denomination. But his faith is clearly more than just a childhood memory.
He has engaged with spiritual life in London, attaching himself to a church, St Barnabas in Kensington, part of a network connected to Holy Trinity Brompton, the modern and evangelical wing of the Church of England. ‘I grew up with my mother bringing me every single Sunday to church,’ he says.
Every time Giroud scores, he points his fingers at the sky, an extension of his faith
‘After, I just carried on and now I’m seeing a Christian priest studying the bible together and I feel like I want to know more about Jesus Christ’s life and every time I read the word of the Holy Bible it
