ISL 2017/18: 7 Indian Super League stars who had played under Arsene Wenger at Arsenal

#3 Nicolas Anelka (Mumbai City FC)

Nicolas Anelka

The world admires Anelka today, and a lot of it has to do with his time at Arsenal, and the way Arsene Wenger moulded him and helped him transform from a boy to a man. He was one of the first young French signings by Arsene Wenger, after he signed the 17-year-old boy from PSG for around half a million pound.

It was his second season at Highbury, that saw Anelka come into the spotlight. He finished as Arsenals highest goal scorer in the 1998-99 Premier League season. Anelka is recorded at number 29 in the top 50 Best Arsenal players of all time. He left Arsenal to join Real Madrid for a sum of €22.5 million in 1999, and it showed the capability of Wenger in terms of doing business, as under him the club’s profits also rose.

In 2014, Mumbai City FC announced that they had signed Nicolas Anelka. In his first season in the ISL Nicolas played seven games and scored two goals. He returned to Mumbai City FC the next season, as a player-manager, but mostly donned the gaffers jacket. In his entire spell in the ISL, Anelka played 13 games for the team from the maximum city and scored just two goals.