Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Alexandre Lacazette

Things you didn’t know about Alexandre Lacazette? Alexandre Lacazette signed for Arsenal on a five-year deal from Lyon for an initial fee believed to be €53m.

He scored 17 goals in 39 appearances in his debut season with the Gunners and subsequently followed it up with 19 goals in 49 appearances in the 2018/19 campaign. Here are ten things you didn’t know about Alexandre Lacazette –

Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Alexandre Lacazette

10. Capped at all levels for Les Bleus – One of the Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Alexandre Lacazette

You can judge a player’s talent by his involvement in the international sphere and Lacazette was involved in all of them for France. The striker was classified as an outstanding talent ever since he was a teenager. He represented his nation at all youth levels but was held off from making his senior debut up until he was 22.

Alexandre Lacazette has so far collected 16 caps for France has scored 3 goals at senior level. The attacker continues to be the unfortunate outcast of a Giroud-Greizmann pairing in the national side, that keeps him out of most games.

He has proven how good he is as a finisher and yet, cannot convince Didier Deschamps into giving him all the strike responsibilities.

9. A regular in the Ligue 1 team of the season – Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Alexandre Lacazette

Alexandre Lacazette broke out as a prolific talent in the Olympique Lyon ranks ever since he made his debut in 2010. He quickly turned into a household name in France after being included in last three Ligue 1 Team of the Season squads.

I mean, he used to compete against the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edison Cavani, Angel Di Maria and Lucas Moura and still used to trump all of them to the starting XI. Not only was he the best player at his club but also the best in his country.

8. Lyon record smashed

Alexandre Lacazette’s breakout season was the 2014/15 one when he scored 27 goals in the Ligue 1 alone. But then he proceeded to break his own tally by scoring 28 in the 2016/17 campaign before making his move to Arsenal.

Out of the 28 goals, only 2 came from penalties. Lacazette was scoring at will, displaying sublime ball control and finishing abilities both inside and outside the opposition penalty box.

7. Footballing family – One of the Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Alexandre Lacazette

Just like his strike partner at the Emirates, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, football runs deep in the veins of the entire Lacazette family.

He is the best of the bunch but his family aren’t too far behind. His cousin, Romuald Lacazette currently plays as a midfielder for 1860 Munich while on loan from Darmstadt. In addition to that, Lacazette’s older brother used to play in the second division of Swedish football before turning into a fully qualified coach.

6. European champion

Lacazette scored the winning goal for France in the 2010 UEFA European U19 Championship against Spain. He was teammates with a former Arsenal midfielder, Francis Coquelin (currently in Valencia) in that youth team.

5. Dedication

Less than 24 hours after the victory over Spain, Lacazette flew down to London to participate in the Emirates Cup for Lyon. He arrived just 10 minutes prior to his team’s warm-up and even started the match against Celtic.

4. Unlikely friendships

Many would believe that Lacazette and Aubameyang were acquainted with each other during their time in the Ligue 1 but such was not the case. While many think them to be rivals in the Arsenal attacking lineup, Lacazette believes it be otherwise.

He revealed to Tribal Football, “I’m always asked about my ‘rivalry’ with Auba, but it’s not like that at all. We know that if we are together, we can stronger and we just have the same target together, which is to win something for the club.

“Before he signed, I didn’t know him but I had heard that he was a good guy. Then we talked and realised we liked each other, so it’s been a good relationship since the beginning. I’m happy he’s here because he’s a good player and a good person as well. We just talk and laugh together as well.

“I don’t see him as a rival. I know he came into the team so sometimes I’ll be on the bench while he’s playing, but he’s my team-mate. Of course, I want to play, but we can play together as well like we did last season. We just want to win titles, so that’s a big thing for the club.”

3. Low profile

Lacazette might be a scoring machine on the pitch but he hardly ever carries his flamboyant self off the pitch. He once said, “Sometimes I have no hat, no glasses, and people don’t recognise me. When I can work, chill, and no one knows who I am, this is good.”

2. Finishing prowess

Back in 2017, before his big-money move to the Emirates, Lacazette held the highest chance conversion rate in Europe’s top five leagues at 38.9%. He beat out RB Leipzig striker, Timo Werner (34.4%) and AS Monaco’s Radamel Falcao (33.9%) by a significant margin.

1. Big break

Claude Puel was responsible for bringing Lacazette’s talents to light (not that anybody else would have held back on the French prospect back then but still you never know).

The former Southampton manager was leading Olympique Lyon back then and during his three years between 2008 and 2011, he gave the strie

After seven years in Lyon’s youth academy, Lacazette was handed his senior professional debut by Claude Puel on the 5^th of May 2010, at the age of just 19. This was before the Frenchman had even signed his first professional contract at the club, which he did a month later after his debut.

The following season, the youngster was a regular fixture in the Lyon first team and as they say the rest is history.

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