Anelka: Misunderstood (Anelka : L'Incompris)

A NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY

All that I've done, don't do it.

You'll only make enemies.

Will you overcome hardship? I don't know.

Are you mentally tough? I don't know.

You want to be like me? There's no point. You're not me.

If you really want to be like me and do what I've done...

be prepared.

I think if Nico made a film,

it would have more parts than Harry Potter.

Or it could be like Star Wars.

The end is the beginning, but the beginning isn't really the end.

He scored again!

Anelka has made it through!

Well... the Che.

-The Che. -The Che.

He's a guy with integrity. He's got your back. He's reliable.

This is the 17-year-old shaking up football.

I think Nicolas Anelka is almost the forgotten footballer.

Nico is someone who stands out. You love him or you hate him.

Nico is no angel when he doesn't want to be an angel.

An unsporting gesture from Anelka.

He made clear that

"he'll have to get down on his knees for me to play for France again."

Nico doesn't know how to be politically correct.

Nicolas Anelka expelled from the France team.

If the events are true,

they are unacceptable.

When you know him and he gets accused of all that,

it's just so infuriating

because he's the exact opposite of what they say he is.

The Champions League? Here it is.

Nico is like a big brother. He's always guided me.

It's all the excesses of our society: money, individualism...

For me, we're talking about one of the greatest strikers in history.

He's done well here. Got away...

-Oh, my word! -What a goal that is!

Nico, fuck...

DUBAI UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

You OK, son?

It's time.

It's time to go to school.

It's time...

Well done!

Well done.

Kais, it's time.

It's time.

OK?

I never said I was retiring...

because who cares.

It's not important.

It's been 20 years of football. It's time.

There you go!

I had the opportunity to continue playing,

but it would have meant being far from my family again.

It got to a point where I thought: "No, I'm happy like this.

Life is good. My family is here, so are my children.

I want to see them grow up and have a quiet life."

Nico had always said to me: "The day I stop playing,

I'd like us to go and live in Dubai because I feel good there.

It's sunny. The people are cool."

We love spending time at home with the children,

as a family.

There you go, son.

-It's time. -Let's go.

It's at the end of your career that you realise what you've done.

Either you're proud or you think:

"I've acted like a victim, like a sheep for 20 years."

Which I didn't necessarily want to think.

Or do.

My parents worked in the public sector.

My mother worked at Rambouillet High School.

My father worked at the Versailles LEA.

We weren't hard up, but we weren't well off either, so...

my parents had to work hard.

Honestly, I had a wonderful childhood.

I'm proud to be from the banlieue.

We spent all our time together. Outside, inside.

There was school, too. Films, music. There were the football games.

We were really close.

I'd pick him up and we'd go to school together since he was in my class.

Here's the green.

This is the green.

It was just a stretch of grass where there was always a game.

Our own Parc des Princes.

I even remember nights when the green was frozen.

We'd be like: "That's enough. We're going home."

You just couldn't play on it. But he kept going. He wanted to play.

Everyone played on the green. Big kids, little kids.

And Nico played with them all.

NICOLAS ANELKA PLAYS FOR TRAPPES FC.

I started playing when I was eight.

I was with Karim and Sami.

They'd go home and I'd tell them I didn't want to be just a footballer.

I wanted to be a star.

It was crazy. It was too much.

He'd even dress up as a footballer for carnival.

You know what I mean?

I'd be like: "Bro, you need to come up with another costume." No. Footballer.

I couldn't turn up as Zorro, so...

I played football because I wanted to be like my big brother, Claude.

He was my role model: I followed his lead

and I really wanted to do what he was doing at his age.

I don't know if his love of football came from me,

but...

what I wanted to do was help him to progress,

to evolve as a player, to become a great player.

He really wanted it, he had talent, but he didn't get the break that I did

with the try-outs at Clairefontaine.

I left home at the age of 13.

You're ten now, almost 11.

So, imagine, in two and a half years,

you leave home, you don't sleep here anymore.

I left for Clairefontaine.

-Who did you live with? -I lived in a...

It was like a training centre.

There was this building with a bunch of 13-year-olds,

and we lived together.

The INF is the best of the best.

Back then, the INF was the number-one football academy.

There are maybe 500 guys who want to get into this football academy.

If you're one of the 23 who do, it means you have talent.

Come on!

They put 20 kids in there.

They tell them they're going to become professional footballers.

Except that out of those 20, only one or two or three will make it.

So, it's like a job market.

When you're at a training centre, it's war.

It's ruthless, you've got to beat your mates who are after the same thing.

If you're not ready for that when you're 14, 15, 16...

then you can't... no, I don't think you can make it.

Go for it!

Go help him...

Yes!

I was starting my second year, he was starting his first.

When you're in the cafeteria, people talk.

"That kid in first year, he's good!"

Nico was so advanced I didn't see him as a little brother,

and I don't think he saw me as a big brother.

We just tried to compete with each other.

For me, he was the most talented.

The most talented. He had a gift.

But, careful...

You've got to be up to it, which is also hard when you're 13.

What struck me were the transformations, actually.

Every time we saw him again,

we saw him grow up and turn into a top athlete.

AT 16, NICOLAS ANELKA JOINS PSG'S PRO SQUAD.

While playing for the reserve team, I joined the pro squad.

I wasn't a pro, but I often trained with the pros

who, at the time, included George Weah, Ginola,

Bravo, Bernard Lama... The legendary PSG team.

He landed in a club that had won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Often, young players like him are sent out to toughen up a bit in second-rate clubs,

but he very quickly joined one of the best clubs in Europe.

I didn't know that type of football, so I had to learn on the job.

I got a lot of support from Samir Amirèche.

He trained with the pros like he would with his mates at home.

He was relaxed, but he had a gift for running with the ball.

When you play with the pros, you go for it.

It's stimulating. Everyone's psyched.

The guys are aged 23 to 27, so you're playing against old-timers.

If you want to succeed,

you can't think that people are better than you.

Sometimes, I hear kids saying: "Yeah, he's just so amazing!"

They're crazy. They'll never make it, talking like that.

I would never say: "That guy is better than me."

Even if he is. It's just impossible.

With 20 minutes to go,

Anelka is sent in to replace Loko.

Why focus on him?

Because PSG says he's the star of tomorrow.

It's a lot of pressure. As a pro, you know everyone's watching you.

Your mates are watching you.

Today, my kid is 16.

Nico was the same age when he lit up the Parc des Princes.

We were so proud.

1ST PROFESSIONAL GOAL

As he found his feet at PSG, I watched in admiration.

I saw this guy who was sharp, fast, agile.

What struck me was realising my mate was good enough to play at that level.

He was playing with the greats... and he was good enough.

A player like him,

who bursts onto the scene and has that maturity so young...

The football world is obviously going to be talking about him.

I sent my recruiters to watch him play.

He was one of those players who flit between the juniors and the pros.

He perhaps felt a little underappreciated.

He was disappointed.

I brought him in and I asked him:

"You want to come to Arsenal?" He replied: "Yes."

Football and the Anelka affair.

This is the 17-year-old shaking up French football.

He has just signed with the English club Arsenal.

Without realising, Anelka has landed in a serious legal battle.

Under French regulations, the 17-year-old apprentice

has to sign his first contract with the club that trained him, PSG,

but the player's entourage and Arsenal contend that the Bosman ruling

and the free movement of players in Europe

exempt them from that obligation.