Sylvain Wiltord

Sylvain Claude Wiltord (born 10 May 1974) is a French former professional footballer.

Mainly a right winger, he also played as a centre-forward, second striker and on the left wing.

Wiltord had a four-season spell at Arsenal, with whom he won two Premier League titles and two FA Cups.

He also won the Ligue 1 title at Bordeaux and in each of his three consecutive seasons at Lyon.

With the France national team, Wiltord earned 92 caps and scored 26 goals.

Wiltord joined Rennes from lower-league side CO Joinville in 1991.

At Rennes, he emerged in the 1993–94 season with eight goals in 26 games.

He played at the 1996 Olympics, two FIFA World Cups and two UEFA European Championships.

As part of the agreement a transfer fee of 300 million pesetas (€1.8 million) was paid to Rennes while Wiltord was loaned back to Rennes for the 1996–97 season.

In summer 1996, after Wiltord's excelled for France at the 1996 Summer Olympics Spanish La Liga club Deportivo de La Coruña reached an agreement with Rennes for him to join from 1 July 1997.

In the summer of 1997, at the end of his spell on loan, he returned to Spain only to request a move back to France so as to link up with Bordeaux.

For this transfer a fee of 375 million pesetas (€2.25 million) and a 40% sell-on clause were agreed.

He was ever-present in his first term at Bordeaux and went on to score 22 goals in the following 1998–99 season, where he won the golden boot as Bordeaux lifted the Ligue 1 championship.

Wiltord was part of the teams which won Euro 2000 (for which he scored a last minute equaliser to take the final to extra time) and reached the final of the 2006 World Cup.

Wiltord was signed by English club Arsenal, for what was then a club record fee of £13 million in August 2000, weeks after scoring the stoppage-time equaliser in the Euro 2000 Final.

This record fee was not surpassed until eight-and-a-half years later when Arsenal paid £15 million for Russian winger Andrey Arshavin.

Whilst with the Gunners he was occasionally paired with Thierry Henry up front or otherwise upon the wing.

Wiltord made his debut as a substitute against Chelsea on 6 September 2000, and his first goal followed against Coventry City on 16 September 2000.

A highlight in his first season was scoring a first half hat-trick in a win against West Ham United.

Arsenal reached the 2001 FA Cup Final which Wiltord started.

He was substituted for Ray Parlour with Arsenal leading 1–0, however Liverpool ultimately came back and scored two late goals to win 2–1.

In the 2001–02 season Wiltord scored ten goals in the league as Arsenal finished as champions.

He scored crucial winning goals along the way against Chelsea and Everton.

The highlight of Wiltord's Arsenal career came at the end of that season; scoring the winning goal over Manchester United at Old Trafford, a 1–0 win which clinched the 2001–02 Premier League title as Arsenal achieved The Double on 8 May.

Returning to Old Trafford the following season in the FA Cup, Wiltord netted again as Arsenal saw off United 2–0 in a year where they also won the Cup.

Wiltord started the 2002 FA Cup Final and played as a substitute in the 2003 final.

Wiltord went on to form part of Arsenal's 2003–04 "Invincibles" season, though his appearances were less frequent towards the end of the campaign.

During the season he made a total of 12 league appearances, which was enough to earn a title winners' medal.

Altogether he played 175 times for the Gunners in all competitions, scoring a total of 49 goals.

When his contract with Arsenal expired in the summer of 2004, Wiltord trained for two weeks with Rennes and rejected a move to newly promoted Premier League team West Bromwich Albion.

He was also reportedly keen on a move to Arsenal's rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

On 31 August, he signed for Lyon on an initial two-year contract.

Moving to Lyon, Wiltord found further success, winning three Ligue 1 titles and reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League in successive seasons.

Wiltord signed for Rennes in August 2007 on a two-year contract and with an opportunity to join the coaching staff when he finished his professional career.

In June 2008, Wiltord was voted 33rd in a list of 50 of the greatest Arsenal players of all time.

He was released at the end of the 2008–09 season, and was considering a possible move to either America, UAE or perhaps retirement.

He joined Marseille on 15 January 2009 for the remainder of the Ligue 1 season.

On 17 May 2009, he scored Marseille's only goal in a 3–1 loss to Lyon at home.

On 30 January 2010, after training with US Créteil, Wiltord signed with FC Metz until the end of the season.

On 18 July 2011, Wiltord came back from retirement and signed a contract at Nantes until the end of 2011–12.