August 1, 1999: Arsenal Sell Their Striker of the Future -- and Make Their Future

August 1, 1999: Arsenal Football Club sell Nicolas Anelka to Real Madrid.

They had little choice but to sell him, in spite of all the promise he had. So they made the best deal they could. It turned out to be the best deal in team history.

Nicolas Sébastien Anelka was born on March 14, 1979, in the Paris suburb of Le Chesnay, France. A son of immigrants to France from their Caribbean island colony of Martinique, the forward played for 12 different soccer teams in 7 different countries, but always wore out his welcome, earning him the nickname "Le Sulk."

In 1997, Arsène Wenger, a native of Strasbourg, France, and manager of North London team Arsenal, purchased Anelka's contract from hometown team Paris Saint-German for £500,000. In 1998, not yet 19 years old, he helped Arsenal win the Premier League title, and scored in the FA Cup Final to complete "The Double."

In 1999, he looked like the next great soccer superstar, but he demanded a big contract, and said that if he didn't get it at Arsenal, he'd put in a transfer request. Arsenal called his bluff, selling him to Spanish giants Real Madrid for £22.3 million.

It was the greatest deal in Arsenal history: Not only did the Gunners get 44 times their money back, but that purchase price paid for their new training ground, London Colney, costing them £10 million; and for the man who actually became the next great Arsenal striker, Thierry Henry, from Turin, Italy giants Juventus, costing them £11 million. He became their all-time leading goalscorer, and helped them win 2 Premier League titles, 3 FA Cups, and reach the Final of both the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup (now the UEFA Europa League).

Anelka helped Real Madrid win the UEFA Champions League in 2000, but, being the most imperious club in the sport, they refused to put up with him, either. He helped Istanbul team Fenerbahçe win the Turkish Süper Lig in 2005, then returned to London, helping Chelsea win the 2009 FA Cup, and the League and Cup Double in 2010. But they couldn't put up with him, and sold him to Juventus, whom he helped win Italy's Serie A in 2013. He was even a player-coach in China, with Shanghai Shenhua, and in India, with Mumbai City, his last team as a player.

With Chelsea

He wasn't much better for his country. He was not called up for the 1998 World Cup, which France won. He did help them win the UEFA European Championship in 2000 and the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2001, and to reach the Final of the 2006 World Cup. But he was part of France's disastrous crashes out of the 2002 and 2010 World Cups, and was never selected again.

Thierry Henry, remembered as "The King," is honored with a statue outside Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal since 2006-07, his last season with the team. In a way, the stadium is also his monument, as much as it is that of Arsène Wenger, or Dennis Bergkamp, or Tony Adams, or any other Arsenal legend.

Nicolas Anelka, remembered as "Le Sulk," has no statue. His monument is the Arsenal Training Centre at London Colney, where young players at the club are taught to be as talented as Anelka, and more mature.

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August 1, 1999 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. Bret Saberhagen outpitched Orlando "El Duque" Hernández. Bernie Williams went 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs, and Paul O'Neill went 3-for-4 with an RBI. But Derek Jeter went 0-for-5.

* The New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. In the top of the 13th inning, with the Mets out of pinch-hitters, pitcher Pat Mahomes had to bat for himself, and singled home the winning run. His son, Patrick Mahomes, became a Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

For the Mets, Rickey Henderson went 0-for-3 with 2 walks and a stolen base. For the Cubs, Sammy Sosa went 0-for-6. I guess the steroids weren't working that day.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 12-4 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-5 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Florida Marlins, 2-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-3 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 9-1 at Riverfront Stadium (then named Cinergy Field) in Cincinnati. Barry Bonds went 1-for-4.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Mark McGwire hit his 597th career home run. I guess his steroids were working that day.

* The Anaheim Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals, 12-5 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 10-3 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Tony Gwynn went 3-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBI. He never needed steroids.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 10-6 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum).

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at the new Safeco Field in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-2 with a walk. His streak over, Cal Ripken Jr. did not play.

February 17, 2015: Chelsea's Racist Fans vs. Paris' Black Fans

"You've got to be carefully taught"

February 17, 2015: Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea play to a 1-1 draw at Parc des Princes in Paris, France, in the 1st Leg of the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League. The game was not especially remarkable. What happened afterward was.

Being a Chelsea fan isn't as easy as their 2003-onward success makes it look. It depends on when someone became a fan. Up until their 1970 FA Cup win, they were the team closest to London's theater district, the West End, so they were considered the team of actors, other theater people, and effete intellectuals. The rise of gay rights activism in the 1970s led to bigots, and other people who didn't like Chelsea, to call their fans "Rent Boys."

By the end of that decade, the rise of Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative Party led to right-wing activists thinking their time had come. The National Front began to oppose immigrants from South Asian, Africa and the Caribbean, including former British colonies.

And they recruited from lower-middle-class English teenagers, appealing to their grievances. The football grounds and nearby pubs were fertile recruiting grounds for them. Chelsea, in particular, because they were in the national capital, and didn't then have a large fanbase of black fans like Arsenal, or Jewish fans like Tottenham Hotspur, became their most popular team. And so, the stereotype of the young Chelsea fan was a neo-Nazi skinhead.

(In 2009, the English Defence League (EDL) was founded, specifically to counter the rise of Muslim immigration to Britain. They recruited among Chelsea fans, too.)

When Chelsea became successful in the mid-2000s, under the ownership of Russian energy oligarch Roman Abramovich, they got nicknamed "Chelski." They also got a lot of "gloryhunters" -- "bandwagoners," they would be called in America -- and, again, it seemed to be mostly lower-middle-class boys. These were the kind of youths who became known as "chavs." The origin of the word is in dispute: The leading theory is that it was short for "Council-Housed And Violent." A "council house" is what the British would call a housing project. And so, "Chelski" became "Chavski," and Chelsea as a club and their fans were both called "the Chavs."

John Terry played centreback for Chelsea from 1998 to 2017, and was Captain from 2001 onward. Shortly before he was named Captain, on September 12, 2001, he and his Chelsea and England teammate, midfielder Frank Lampard, were seen drunkenly insulting American tourists stuck at a hotel near Heathrow Airport, as they were unable to return home following the 9/11 attacks. Terry was also accused of stealing the girlfriend of a teammate, left back Wayne Bridge, leading to him being stripped of the captaincy of the national team after the 2010 World Cup.

In a 2011 match against another West London team, Queens Park Rangers, Terry was accused of using racist language against QPR player Anton Ferdinand. He was criminally charged, and found not guilty, but the Football Association conducted its own investigation, decided that he had used racist language, was suspended for 4 games, and given a hefty fine. He retired from national team play, reflecting the reality that he would not have been selected again anyway, as it would have tarnished the England team's image. He admitted his offense, and apologized.

But Terry's racist behavior deepened Chelsea's reputation, even as they had great success with black players such as Ghanian midfielder Michael Essien, English left back Ashley Cole, French forward Nicolas Anelka, and Ivorian forward Didier Drogba.

On February 17, 2015, Chelsea visited Paris Saint-Germain in the 1st Leg of a Round of 16 tie in the UEFA Champions League. Before the game, a train stopped at the Richelieu-Drouot station on the Paris Métro. Security footage showed Souleymane Sylla, a black Frenchman of Mauritanian descent, trying to board the train, and being pushed off by a Chelsea fan. And a few Chelsea fans started chanting, to the tune of "I Will Follow Him," the 1963 Number 1 hit by Little Peggy March which has been adapted for many English football chants:

We're racist!

We're racist!

We're racist!

And that's the way we like it!

We like it!

We like it!

The game ended in a 1-1 draw, and was not especially interesting. The return leg was played at Stamford Bridge in London, and it ended 2-2 after extra time. PSG advanced on away goals, and lost in the Quarterfinals to FC Barcelona, which went on to win the tournament. Both Chelsea and PSG went on to win their respective domestic leagues.

Things got worse. The following season, on September 16, 2015, freelance soccer writer Simon Rowntree reported the following on Twitter, during Chelsea's Champions League match with the defending champions of Israel, Maccabi Tel Aviv:

I am at Stamford Bridge and I can hear Chelsea fans singing "We will, we will gas you" along with other anti-semitic chants (1/2)

and making hissing noises towards the direction of the Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters. This is simply disgusting. (2/2)

As I have previously said, this just shows what utter SCUM Chelsea supporters are. These animals belong to EDL rallies, not football grounds

On January 3, 2017, 4 Chelsea fans from the Paris Métro incident, who had been accused of "aggravated violence," were given suspended one-year sentences by a French court. One was Richard Barklie, a 52-year-old former policeman, who should have known better. The other 3 were younger: Joshua Parsons, 22; James Fairbairn, 25; and William Simpson, 27. They were also ordered to pay Sylla 10,000 euros in compensation, and banned from Chelsea home matches.

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February 17, 2015 was a Tuesday. There was 1 other Champions League match that day: Shakhtar Donetsik and Bayern Munich played to a 0-0 draw. The game was played at Arena Lviv in Lviv, Ukraine, because Russia had invaded and occupied Shakhtar's home city of Donetsk.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA was in its All-Star Break. There were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1 at the PNC Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1 in a shootout at the Prudential Center.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Nashville Predators beat the San Jose Sharks 5-1 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the Dallas Stars beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-1 at the Scottrade Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.