Meet The Players

Robert Pires

Robert Emmanuel Pirès (born October 29, 1973 in Reims, France) is a French international football player, of Portuguese and Spanish descent. He is married to Jessica Lemarie and has a daughter Naya (8-10-2005) and a son Theo (7-11-2007).

He plays for Villarreal CF as a winger. He normally plays on the left wing but can play all across midfield or as a support striker.

Pirès is a graduate of the FC Metz youth academy, making his senior debut in 1993, against Lyon. During his six seasons there, he scored 43 goals in 162 matches, and won the Coupe de la Ligue, prompting a £5 million move to Olympique de Marseille in 1998. At Marseille, Pirès had a mixed two-year stay. His first season saw him miss the French league title by a point, and his second season saw him suffer a spate of on- and off-field problems, which led him to boycott the club at the season's end.

English football career

He was signed by Arsenal for £6 million in 2000, after stiff competition from Real Madrid and Juventus replacing Marc Overmars who had left for FC Barcelona for a record 25 million pounds. Initially, Pirès' form was indifferent, and some people criticised him after his comments that the English game was too physical. However, he slowly began to regain the form he had shown at Metz, scoring a superb solo goal against Lazio in the 2000–01 Champions League, and the winner against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup semi-finals; however Arsenal went on to lose the Cup final to Liverpool 2–1.

By 2001–02, Pirès had fully got to grips with the English game and had one of his best seasons. Pirès scored some superb goals against Middlesbrough F.C. and Aston Villa. Against Aston Villa, Pirès chased after a long ball by Freddie Ljungberg, and lobbed the ball over the pursuing George Boateng, and finished off the move with a delightful chip over Peter Schmeichel. He led the Premiership assist charts and was voted both FWA Footballer of the Year and Arsenal's player of the season, as Arsenal won the league title. This was despite not playing the last two months of the season after suffering a cruciate ligament injury in a FA Cup match against Newcastle United.

After a lengthy layoff, Pirès made his comeback in November 2002 as a substitute against Auxerre in the UEFA Champions League. Initially Pirès found it tough, but he finally found his form, scoring 14 Premiership goals in 20 starts that season, including a hat-trick against Southampton in the penultimate day of the season. Pirès was voted Barclaycard Player of the Month for February 2003. Pirès capped off his season by scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup final against Southampton.

He went on to be a crucial part of Arsenal's quest for the Premiership title in the 2003–04 season, which they achieved, remaining unbeaten and becoming the first English top flight club to do so in 115 years. Pirès and his Arsenal teammate Thierry Henry were instrumental in that season, scoring a combined 57 goals in all competitions. Pirès made a sluggish start to the campaign, but a wondergoal against Liverpool F.C. at Anfield kick-started his season. Pirès showed football fans his sublime technique, skills and finishing, most notably with his goals against Liverpool, Bolton, Leeds. He surprised a lot of people with a world class tackle on Claude Makelele and following that, a run into the penalty box which dragged William Gallas and John Terry away, thus making space for Patrick Vieira to have a one on one with the Chelsea goalkeeper, and subsequently scoring. Arsenal won that match 2–1, with Vieira's goal the equaliser. That day of EPL action proved decisive, as Man Utd's failure to beat Leed's United during the same day resulted in Arsenal getting a huge lead in the title race. Arsenal never lost 1st place in the table for the rest of the season. More notably, Pirès will always be remembred for a game in the UEFA Champions League 1st leg match against Chelsea, Quarter-Finals, where he managed to beat John Terry to a header, which resulted in getting the equaliser for Arsenal, after Eidur Gudjohnson had given Chelsea the lead. Unfortunately for Arsenal and Pirès, they were eliminated after they lost 1–2 in the return leg, courtesy of a 87th minute Wayne Bridge goal. Pirès also showed his playmaking skills in the wonderfully crafted goal against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, in which Pirès was the architect in building up the goal, and capped off the move with a sublime finish to score Arsenal's 2nd goal of the game. Tottenham refused to give up, and managed to claw their way back and claimed a 2–2 draw. Despite that, Arsenal won the title after the match. Pirès finished that season with an impressive tally of 14 goals and 7 assists in the English Premier League. He was Arsenal's second top scorer (behind Thierry Henry) and had the joint amount of assists (along with Dennis Bergkamp) that season.