Chelsea’s striker Olivier Giroud has become the second-highest goalscorer of all time for France national team after scoring twice on Wednesday, October 7, against Ukraine in an international friendly.
The two goals the 34-year-old striker scored in the 8 goals thriller took his all-time goals tally from 40 to 42 which has surpassed the 41 goals French football legend, Michel Platini scored for the national team before he retired.
Giroud is now 9 goals away from equaling Thierry Henry‘s 51 international career goals which have kept him as France’s all-time highest goalscorer since 14 October 2009.
In the international friendly that saw Giroud broke Platini’s goalscoring record, France humiliated Ukraine by defeating them 7-1. French 17-year-old forward Eduardo Camavinga opened the scoring in the 9th minute to become France’s second-youngest player to score for the national team.
Giroud‘s record-breaking goals came in the 24th and 33rd minute of the match. Before Ukraine’s Vitaliy Mykolenko scored an own-goal in the 39th minute to make it 4-0. Mykolenko tried to redeem himself by assisting Viktor Tsyhankov to score Ukraine’s only goal of the match in the 53rd minute.
Afterward, France continued their assault on Ukraine in the 65th minute with a goal from Corentin Tolisso. Kylian Mbappé made it 6 goals for France in the 82nd minute while Antoine Griezmann completed the assault on the 89th minute.
Olivier Giroud and his 42nd goal for France
Olivier Giroud will be a pleased man not just because he was able to surpass Michel Platini’s goals tally after 100 games for France national team, it is a confidence booster for him. He was almost on the verge of losing his place in the national team especially before March 2020 because he was rarely used at Chelsea by Frank Lampard.
Luckily for him, he got a one year contract with Chelsea and earned some game time where he tried to prove his relevance at the London club. The more he scores especially for France will keep him on the radar of the country’s head coach, Didier Deschamps.
Olivier Giroud has been playing for the France national team since 2011. He won the FIFA World Cup with the team in 2018.
As for club football, he has been with Chelsea since 2018. He joined the Stamford Bridge-based club from Arsenal for €17 million. Since then, he has played 91 times for Chelsea in which he scored 29 goals and provided 14 assists.
He has won one FA Cup and one Europa League with Chelsea. His contract with the club will expire in June 2021.
Below are the top 20 all-time highest goalscorers in France National team as of October 7, 2020.
- Thierry Henry – 51 goals
- Olivier Giroud – 42 goals
- Michel Platini – 41 goals
- David Trezeguet – 34 goals
- Antoine Griezmann – 32 goals
- Zinedine Zidane – 31 goals
- Jean-Pierre Papin – 30 goals
- Just Fontaine – 30 goals
- Youri Djorkaeff – 28 goals
- Karim Benzema – 27 goals
- Sylvain Wiltord – 26 goals
- Jean-Vincent – 22 goals
- Jean Nicolas – 21 goals
- Eric Cantona – 20 goals
- Jean Baratte – 19 goals
- Roger Piantoni – 18 goals
- Raymond Kopa – 18 goals
- Franck Ribéry – 16 goals
- Herve Revelli – 16 goals
- Laurent Blanc – 16 goal
