Nicolas Anelka joined Chelsea for a fee of £15million on this day in 2008.
The 28-year-old France striker completed a move from Bolton to join Avram Grant’s side on a three-and-a-half year deal.
Chelsea had been looking for extra firepower to help them overcome the loss of Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou to African Cup of Nations duty.
“Chelsea are a big club. I have proved that I can score goals at the top level and I can do the same for Chelsea,” said the much-travelled Anelka, who counted Arsenal, Real Madrid, Paris St Germain and Liverpool among his former clubs.
“I want to tell the Chelsea fans that I see this as a great opportunity and an honour to play for Chelsea and I will not disappoint them.
“Chelsea is the team I really wanted to join and I hope this will be the last club that I play for.
“I am delighted everything has been sorted out. This was a fantastic opportunity that I couldn’t turn down.
“I am really looking forward to working with (manager) Avram (Grant) and Chelsea’s style of football really suits my game.”
Happy birthday, Nicolas Anelka! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/ZgiaLZVFS2
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 14, 2020
Anelka would go on to score 59 goals in 184 games for the Blues and his time at Stamford Bridge saw him win the Premier League and two FA Cups.
However, he missed the decisive spot-kick in the 2008 Champions League final penalty shoot-out defeat to Manchester United in Moscow.
Anelka left Chelsea in January 2012 when he moved to Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua and had further spells at Juventus and West Brom before finishing his career with Indian club Mumbai City.
