{"id":301447,"date":"2025-11-23T09:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T09:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/301447\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T09:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T09:41:09","slug":"nicolas-anelka-says-the-toughest-defender-he-ever-faced-was-sold-by-sir-alex-ferguson-at-man-utd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/301447\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicolas Anelka says the toughest defender he ever faced was sold by Sir Alex Ferguson at Man Utd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Former France striker Nicolas Anelka has named a player that Sir Alex Ferguson controversially sold as the toughest defender he ever faced.<\/p>\n<p>As a journeyman throughout his career, Nicolas Anelka played against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/club\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manchester United<\/a> with seven different clubs.<\/p>\n<p>Anelka won 13 of his 28 matches against United, scoring six goals and registering three assists.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/mail.png\" alt=\"mail icon\"\/>Join our newsletter for news &amp; smart analysis. <\/p>\n<p>The Frenchman missed a penalty against United in the 2008 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/champions-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Champions League<\/a> final, helping the Red Devils to their third European Cup following the triumphs in 1968 and 1999.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, Anelka has been known to assist with coaching in the Lille youth academy. It remains to be seen if he\u2019ll ever throw his hat into the ring for a managerial role, but he has been reflecting on some of the best players he came up against during his career.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"662\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2240760143-1024x662.jpg\" alt=\"Nicholas Anelka trying to get past Jaap Stam\" class=\"wp-image-310866\" \/>Photo by Mark Leech\/Offside via Getty ImagesNicolas Anelka couldn\u2019t get the better of Jaap Stam<\/p>\n<p>Anelka has taken part in a TikTok challenge to name the most iconic players from his career for multiple reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Anelka burst onto the scene at Arsenal before signing for Real Madrid. He also played with Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Man City, Bolton, Chelsea, West Brom and other clubs.<\/p>\n<p>It would be fair to say that Anelka has come up against some of the best defenders to ever grace the Premier League, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/rio-ferdinand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rio Ferdinand<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/nemanja-vidic\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nemanja Vidic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, Anelka named former United defender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/jaap-stam\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jaap Stam<\/a> as the \u2018toughest\u2019 defender he came up against.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to So Foot, Anelka said: \u201cJaap Stam, who was playing for Manchester United at the time while I was at Arsenal. Every time I came up against him, it was very difficult to get past him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>United fans will be forever thankful to Anelka for missing his penalty in Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>Jaap Stam\u2019s Man Utd exit in 2001<\/p>\n<p>Stam\u2019s exit in August 2001 not only came as a shock to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/club\/manchester-united-fans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">United fans<\/a>, but it was also extremely controversial because Stam was at the top of his game.<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson wasn\u2019t happy with Stam\u2019s autobiography, Head to Head, with several claims angering the manager.<\/p>\n<p>        Who is Manchester United\u2019s best manager since Sir Alex Ferguson?       <\/p>\n<p>One claim suggested Ferguson had illegally approached him to join United by doing so behind PSV Eindhoven\u2019s back.<\/p>\n<p>Stam also made comments about his United teammates.<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson instantly sold Stam to Lazio for approximately \u00a316 million. He went on to have an incredible career, most notably at AC Milan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former France striker Nicolas Anelka has named a player that Sir Alex Ferguson controversially sold as the toughest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,25642,561,82],"class_list":["post-301447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sir-alex-ferguson","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}