In Lille, Olivier Giroud has looked back on a transfer turning point that could have taken him to Germany rather than across London. The French striker, who turned 40 on Wednesday, revealed why Borussia Dortmund’s interest in January 2018 never became a move.
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Giroud was short of regular football at Arsenal at the time and felt he needed more minutes before France’s World Cup campaign later that year. A change during the winter window was therefore on his mind, with Dortmund among the possible destinations.
The decisive obstacle came at home. Late in January, Giroud’s wife Jen had given birth to their third child and had no intention of leaving England for the Ruhr.
“Forget it,” Giroud recalled as her immediate response. He said she warned him: “If you take me to another country now, to Germany and Dortmund on top of that, I’ll kill you.”
The move to Dortmund did not happen. Instead, Giroud stayed in the English capital and joined Chelsea, a transfer that allowed him to continue his career in London before later spells in Italy with AC Milan and now in northern France with Lille.
