Olivier Giroud has scored eleven goals in 44 matches between Ligue 1 and the Europa League. Important numbers. Especially if we consider that we are talking about a 39-year-old man, now in his 21st season as a professional footballer. And not only that: Giroud is also elegant, impeccable, charismatic, never controversial. Lille’s number 9, in short, is still a strong striker, a real footballer. And yet, despite everything, his second career – as a sports pundit, to be precise – has already begun. The BBC, in fact, has hired him as a talent to cover the 2026 World Cup, scheduled from 11 June in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Giroud, who with the French national team has collected 137 appearances and 57 goals, but above all won the 2018 World Cup in Russia, was considered too old for a call-up. But he will enjoy the competition in a different way, commentating on matches alongside a truly dream team: in addition to him there will also be genuine legends such as Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney, and then former Manchester City defender Micah Richards, who has become hugely popular thanks to the CBS programme “Golazo” – in which he comments on the Champions League with Carragher and Thierry Henry. In addition to them, Joe Hart, Gaël Clichy and César Azpilicueta will also be present.
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It was the British broadcaster itself that took care of announcing the signing on its own social channels. In the posted video, you see a young man in a barber’s chair who is about to have his hair cut. The customer does not ask for the “Mbappé cut”. Pointing out to him that to have a style similar to that of the Real Madrid star you need curls, the barber proposes an alternative to the young man: the Giroud hairstyle. The lad does not know who the former Milan player is, who at that point is video-called by the hairdresser himself. Not exactly a triumph of communication, but that was enough for the news to go around the world. On the other hand, a talent of such high profile, with such an accurate level of English, was better not to let slip away.