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Patrick Vieira

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Patrick Vieira
Personal information
Full name Patrick Vieira
Height 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) (6' 3 1/2")
Position(s) Centre Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Internazionale
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of September 6, 2006

Patrick Vieira (born June 23, 1976 in Dakar, Senegal) is a French football midfielder, who currently plays for Internazionale Milano. He came to prominence during his time at Arsenal between 1996 and 2005, where he won three FA Premier League titles and four FA Cups, and eventually became club captain. He spent a single season at Juventus before joining Inter in 2006, after Juventus were relegated due to their part in a match-fixing scandal. He has nearly 100 caps for France, and was part of their 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 winning sides and is now the team captain.[1]

Club career

Early career

Born in Senegal in the Cape Verdian community, Vieira's family moved to Paris when he was aged 8; he did not return to Senegal until 2003. Vieira first played for AS Cannes, where he made his debut at the age of 17 and captained the team aged only 19. Soon after that, in the summer of 1995, he was snapped up by Italian giants AC Milan, though he mainly stayed in the reserves and only made two appearances for the first team.

Arsenal

In September 1996, the incoming Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger asked for him to be bought from AC Milan before he took up his position. Vieira's height, stamina and physical strength meant he settled in England quickly, while his composure and the quality of his passing meant he became an integral part of Wenger's stylish attacking side.

Forming a midfield partnership with compatriot Emmanuel Petit, Vieira won the Premiership and FA Cup Double in 1998, his first full season at the club. That summer, he was called up to France's 1998 World Cup squad.

Vieira's earlier years at Arsenal was beset by disciplinary problems - in 2000-01 he was sent off twice in two consecutive matches, though after returning he did not accrue a card for 28 matches. In all he has been sent off twelve times in his career (nine times with Arsenal and once with Juventus, France and Internazionale).

Vieira would go on to win Euro 2000 with France, as well as a second Double with Arsenal in 2002. After Tony Adams's retirement in 2002, Vieira (already vice-captain) became club captain, since which his disciplinary problems cooled significantly. Though he missed Arsenal's 2003 FA Cup final win with injury, Vieira lifted the trophy jointly with captain for the day David Seaman.

In 2003-04 at Arsenal, he captained the side on an historic unbeaten season in the Premier League, and in the 2005 FA Cup Final he scored the winning kick in a penalty shoot-out with his final kick in Arsenal colours, after a 0-0 draw with Manchester United. In total, Vieira played 407 times for Arsenal and scored 33 times.

He returned to Arsenal for one game on July 22, 2006 in a testimonial for Dennis Bergkamp as one of Arsenal legends against Ajax legends.

Despite his departure, Vieira has remained a favourite among Arsenal fans, and there is a picture of him among 14 other past and present Arsenal greats in "The Armoury", at Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium.

Juventus

Vieira's starring performances for Arsenal earned the attention of several major clubs abroad, as well as an approach from Manchester United. At the close of the 2003 and 2004 seasons, he was strongly linked with a move to Spanish superpower Real Madrid. It was also reported that despite Arsenal's Premiership and FA Cup victories, Vieira was frustrated by his club's lack of continental success and the UEFA Champions League was the one honour that eluded him[2]. The Spanish side reportedly offered Arsenal £23 million for him which was reluctantly accepted. However at the last moment after much deliberation Vieira decided to stay at the club where he made his name.

A year later, Vieira did move away from Highbury. Arsenal accepted a bid of €20m (£13.7m) from Italian giants Juventus on July 14, 2005, and Vieira agreed a five-year contract with the Serie A side the following day. In his autobiography, he cited the main reason for his leaving Arsenal as the board's 'neutral' position over the Juventus bid.

The then Juventus coach Fabio Capello used Vieira in a midfield consisting of Brazilian Emerson and Czech Pavel Nedved. He helped Juventus to record their best ever start to a league season. Despite his performances dipping as the result of a persistent groin injury and a reported training ground bust-up with team mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Vieira helped Juventus retain the Italian Championship.

In a twist of fate, Vieira returned to Highbury on March 28, 2006 to play against Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League. Arsenal won 2-0 on aggregate, scoring twice in the first leg. Vieira received a yellow card in the first leg match at Highbury and was suspended for the return leg on April 5, 2006.

Internazionale

However, Juventus were stripped of their 2005-06 title after it was revealed they were involved in a match-fixing scandal. Juventus were relegated to Serie B and deducted 17 points by the Italian Football Federation for their involvement, prompting many of the club's major stars to move elsewhere. After press speculation linking him to various clubs, including Arsenal and Manchester United, on August 2, 2006 Vieira officially signed 4 year-deal for Internazionale in a deal reported to be worth €9.5m, less than the €20m fee that Juventus had bought him for.

International career

While at Arsenal, he made his debut for the France, in 1997 against the Netherlands. Vieira was part of the France squad in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. He came on as a substitute for Youri Djorkaeff in the final against Brazil, and set up club teammate Petit for France's third goal in a 3-0 win. He, with the rest of the squad, received Légion d'Honneur, France's highest decoration in 1998.

He subsequently played as a first choice midfield player in France's successful campaign in Euro 2000, which they won, beating Italy in the final. He also played in all three games in the FIFA World Cup 2002, in which France were eliminated in the group stage, failing to score a goal. He was injured and missed France's defeat to Greece at Euro 2004.

Vieira was appointed national team captain on Zinedine Zidane's retirement from international football. Nonetheless, he and coach Raymond Domenech were instrumental in convincing Zidane to end his retirement and help the flagging campaign to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Vieira even handed back the captaincy of the team to Zidane. On August 5, 2006 Vieira was reappointed captain of the French national team.

On June 23, 2006, his birthday, Vieira took the captain's armband for the match in place of the suspended Zidane, whom he shared the birthday with, scoring the first goal when France defeated Togo 2-0 in the group stages of the FIFA World Cup 2006; Vieira set up Thierry Henry for France's second. This win helped France advance to the knockout stages, coming second behind Switzerland, and it prolonged Zidane's international career. In the round of sixteen, Vieira scored the second goal in France's 3-1 defeat of Spain; France went on to beat favourites Brazil 1-0 in the quarter-finals, and Portugal by the same score in the semi-finals, which gave them a place in the final against Italy. Having played in every match up to the final, Vieira started the match but was substituted due to injury in the second half, likely sustained when he collided with Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro. Italy won 5-3 on penalties after the game finished 1-1 after extra time. As of September 6 2006 Vieira has appeared 97 times for France, scoring 6 goals.

Honours

With France National Football Team

With Arsenal:

With Juventus:

  • Serie A Scudetto (1) : 2005-06 (Juventus were stripped of the Title after being found guilty in a match fixing scandal.)

Other:

Preceded by Arsenal captain
2002–2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by France captain
2004–2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by France captain
2006– 		Succeeded by


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