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Patrick Vieira

Ozren Podnar reports...

Patrick Vieira is a French midfielder who has guaranteed success to all the teams he has played for.

After pulling the strings in the Arsenal midfield for nine years and enjoying a brilliant but ultimately disappointing season with Juventus, he now defends the colours of arguably the most potent club side in the world, Internazionale of Milan.

Vieira is a machine of a player, whose tireless ball winning and accurate distribution helped France win the most prestigious trophies in soccer and Arsenal effectively challenge the dominance of Manchester United in England.

He had played just two Serie A games for Milan before Arsenal cut in with a £4 million offer on Arsene Wenger's request. In fact Wenger had insisted on Vieira's signing even before accepting Arsenal's offer, clear proof of the manager's ability to spot greatness in a young player.

After the lanky African signed for the Gunners in July of 1996, Wenger followed soon afterwards from Grampus Eight of the J-League.

Born in Senegal to a family from Cape Verde, Patrick moved to Paris with his mother and brother when he was eight and did not return to Senegal until 2003.

He never met his father and when asked whether he ever wanted to contact him, he says, "I don't know my dad. That's a part of my life I don't like talking about."

When the Vieiras came to Paris, they settled in a cramped apartment in the grim Trappes suburb, not far from Versailles. The life in Trappes was hard, but peaceful then. Recently, it has became a stage of racial and religious tension.

Vieira's first club was Cannes, where he made his debut at 17 and earned the captain's armband only two years later. Milan lured him to San Siro in early 1996, but Fabio Capello gave him just two Serie A appearances in the championship winning season.

Wenger remembered right

Remembering him from his Cannes days, Wenger took Vieira to Arsenal as one of the pillars for the future all-conquering team.

Vieira played his first game for the Gunners in September of 1996 as the only foreign player in an otherwise totally British team, if you can imagine an Arsenal that used to be like that.

When this tall and gangly youngster took the field he looked like a frightened fowl more than like a footballer, but when the game started there was nothing vulnerable in his game.

Having come on for Ray Parlour, he moved on the pitch and directed the Gunners' play with elegance and ease rarely seen in a player his size (6ft 3).

"I had a good game. The fans looked at me with a certain bewilderment as I was so thin. They wondered if I would be able to withstand the pressure," Vieira said of his debut.

And he could, big time. His sinewy physique and resilience helped him fit into the Premiership in no time. At the peak of his form Vieira was supremely influential, a combative, sometimes brutal player who could destroy and create play in a single move.

Having built a solid partnership with the fellow countryman Emmanuel Petit, Vieira won the League and Cup double in his second season at Highbury. In the same period he was recalled to the national team, debuting against Holland in 1997.

Next summer he was called up to the French team for the 1998 World Cup and although not yet a first team regular, he came on for Youri Djorkaeff in the final against Brazil, just in time to set up Petit for the final goal of the 3-0 win.

He went on to become a national team regular and pick up the other big soccer prize, the European Championship in Belgium and Holland in 2000.

His biggest problem at Arsenal was his disciplinary record.

During his tenure as a Gunner he was sent off nine times, including two consecutive games in 2000/01. Then there was the sale of his friends Petit and Marc Overmars in 2001.

Vieira thought the club was running out of ambition and started to talk of his imminent departure, but the reality was quite different since Arsenal, with Patrick on board, managed another double in 2001/02.

After the retirement of the long serving central defender Tony Adams, Vieira was made captain at the end of the second double-winning season, but in 2003 he sustained a serious thigh injury, which forced him to watch the FA Cup finals against Southampton from the sidelines.

Still, he stepped down on the turf to lift the trophy together with the captain on the day, David Seaman.

Now with a more controlled temperament, he captained the Gunners to an historic achievement, a championship win without a defeat in 2003/04.

His outstanding performances caused Real Madrid to carry out several moves for his signature, but even when Arsenal accepted 35 million euros in the summer of 2004, Vieira did not want to move.

Galáctico or nothing

Sources close to the player suspect he refused Real since he could not achieve the same financial status as the rest of the "galácticos". It was said he was willing to go to Santiago Bernabeu provided they paid him 180,000 euros a week, which was Beckham's and Zidane's salary. But, the Real chairman Florentino Perez was prepared to pay only 135,000 euros a week, seeing Vieira not as another "galáctico", but as a water-bearer for the offensive department of the team.

Maybe he ended up disappointed with the unsuccessful negotiations, or he had run out of motives after the phenomenal League season, but the fact is that his last season at Highbury was less than successful.

Although he played 44 games and scored a decent seven goals, the impression was he was not giving his best. Some remembered an old comment by the former skipper, Tony Adams, who predicted Vieira would not stay long at the top.

Still, he closed his career with Arsenal on a high, scoring the winning penalty in the FA Cup finals against Manchester United – his fourth FA Cup triumph in nine seasons.

It turned out a change of air was all Vieira needed. On July 14th Arsenal accepted Juventus's 20 million euro offer and Patrick agreed to the transfer without the hesitations that had marked the previous summer's talks with Real Madrid.

Under his old teacher Capello, who had briefly coached him at Milan, Vieira flourished and so did Juventus, finishing top of Serie A with 27 wins and one loss out of 38 games.

However, this was not to be another honour on Vieira's long list of trophies and awards since the Italian FA took the highly controversial decision to strip Juventus of their last two titles on account of Luciano Moggi's alleged corruption.

When it was confirmed Juve would be kicked into the Second Division, a place where neither the Turin team nor Patrick Vieira had never been, an exodus ensued and the Frenchman was one of nine players to leave Delle Alpi in search of further top flight football.

At 30 and fresh from another successful World Cup campaign with France, Vieira had to be one of the most prized pieces on the market, and it was Inter, Juve's eternal foe and the new administrative champions, who stepped in and took their man for a mere 9.5 million euros.

It wasn't a very good deal for a cash-strapped Juventus, but a scoop for Inter, perennially hoping to win a scudetto on the field, not just in the offices of the Italian FA.

Although the observers claim Inter needed someone more creative in the midfield, Vieira just may turn out to be the right ingredient for Roberto Mancini's squad – a true winner throughout his career.

Vieira fact file

Name: Patrick Vieira
Birth date: June 23, 1976
Birth place: Dakar (Senegal)
Height and weight: 191 cm, 81 kg
Position: central midfielder
Club: Inter Milan
Shirt number: 14

Career breakdown (appearances – goals)

1993/94 Cannes 5 0
1994/95 Cannes 31 2
1995/96 Cannes 13 0
Milan 2 0
1996/97 Arsenal 31 2
1997/98 Arsenal 33 2
1998/99 Arsenal 34 3
1999/00 Arsenal 30 2
2000/01 Arsenal 30 6
2001/02 Arsenal 36 2
2002/03 Arsenal 24 3
2003/04 Arsenal 29 3
2004/05 Arsenal 32 6
2005/06 Juventus 31 5
2006/07 Inter

National team:

1997-06 France 99 6
Honours
3 Premier League titles (1998, 2002 and 2004)
4 English FA Cups (1998, 2002, 2003 and 2005)
4 English Charity Shields (1998, 1999, 2002 and 2004)
1 Italian League title (2006)*
1 UEFA Cup finals (2000)
1 World Cup (1998), 1 World Cup finals (2006)
1 European Championship (2000)
1 Confederations Cup (2000)
Player of the Year in England (2004)
* declared void by the Italian FA due to referee scandal

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Ozren Podnar

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