This article was published in the March 2012 issue of New Sports magazine. If you wish to reprint, please credit the source. On a summer day in 1999, standing in the home team locker room at the Bernabeu, Nicolas Anelka couldn’t find his place. No one introduced him to his teammates, no one told him where to sit, and there wasn’t even a locker with his name on it. The 19-year-old Anelka could only stand there awkwardly as his teammates passed by one by one: McManaman, Hierro, Redondo, Guti… Walking into the Real Madrid locker room for the first time, he couldn’t understand why he was being ignored until Samuel Eto'o and Geremi whispered their secrets, “Be careful! We heard someone question the president: if the team already has Morientes, why buy you?” "From that moment on, I realized my teammates didn't welcome me. It hurt me deeply," Anelka confessed in an interview with the British magazine 442 in 2008, revealing this little-known episode from his past. "I realized I could only stay in Madrid for a year; otherwise, worse things would happen." From joining Real Madrid as a prodigy under a halo of glory to becoming a discarded talent, Anelka indeed only took a year. In the 1999-2000 season, he scored only five goals for Real Madrid, and what left a deeper impression on fans were the controversies he created off the pitch, such as publicly criticizing coach Bosques' tactics as unsuitable for him, calling Raul "not a good striker and not a good person," and once being fined and suspended for 45 days for missing training. In the two legs of the Champions League semifinal that season, he scored against Bayern Munich both times, but during the championship celebration ceremony in Paris after the final, he seemed isolated from his club teammates, like an outsider who had been ostracized. Anelka's poor experience at Real Madrid is not hard to explain. Wandering souls tend to feel lonely, and his early fame inflated his ego, making him more sensitive to outside dissent and reacting more rebelliously. As a young foreign newcomer, encountering resistance or suppression from local players upon joining Real Madrid wasn't strange; similar incidents have occurred in many clubs. However, Anelka mistakenly escalated these emotions and opposed them from the start, adopting an attitude of confrontation. He didn't know how to maintain an appropriate distance with his teammates; anyone was either a friend or an enemy to him. Therefore, Anelka wouldn't actively seek his own position; he misinterpreted his teammates' indifference as hostility, thinking the team didn't want to accept him, thus refusing to integrate and behaving colder than his teammates. In world football, conflicts between youthful arrogance and team authority, sometimes leading to tense confrontations, are not unique to Anelka - Samuel Eto'o, another transient at Real Madrid who wandered far and wide, also clashed with several clubs. But over a decade later today, when Eto'o, once known for his straightforward "big mouth" personality, became more tactful, shedding tears to bless Inter Milan and swearing loyalty to Russia's Anzhi Makhachkala by pressing his right hand to his chest, Anelka, while striving to maintain professional sharpness, remained inept in interpersonal communication. Silent, expressionless, rarely showing any smile on his face, Anelka didn't develop close friends in any club he played for. When he scored, he wouldn't be ecstatic; when he missed chances, he rarely lamented by clutching his head. Playing football seemed like just a routine task for him, so much so that he didn't care much about match results, cheers, boos, or angry shouts from fans. You might marvel at his innate talent while simultaneously feeling oppressed by his aloofness... This is the impression Anelka leaves on people on the field. Absurdly though, despite his cold demeanor, deep down, Anelka harbored a fiery temper that flared up whenever things didn't go his way. In 1999, the year he was named Premier League Young Player of the Year, Anelka complained that Overmars didn't pass him the ball; when he decided to leave Arsenal for Real Madrid, he broke ties with his mentor Wenger, refused phone calls, and threatened to skip training; at Real Madrid, he turned his guns on Bosques and Raul; back at Paris Saint-Germain, he fell out with Luis Fernandez, who had once given him a chance; on loan at Liverpool, he criticized manager Houllier for "hindering his permanent transfer." In the French national team, he demanded Santini to "get down on his knees and apologize" and insulted Domenech as "a bastard" - ironically, it was the latter who defied public opinion to recall him to the Gauls team. Even when leaving Chelsea, Anelka still resented the cold treatment he received in his final days there, harshly criticizing Portuguese coach Andre Villas-Boas for taking away his parking spot and demoting him to train with the reserve team. Villas-Boas' treatment of Anelka lacked some grace but accurately hit the soft spots of his hypersensitive, suspicious, and extremely self-respecting character, forcing the two-time top scorer of the team to submit a transfer request. By the end of 2011, Anelka finally parted ways with the club he had stayed longest (nearly four years), and repeatedly clashing with former clubs unfortunately became a blemish on his career that people criticized. But in fact, Anelka isn't necessarily as irredeemably arrogant as most fans imagine. British football scholar Simon Kuper pointed out that the lack of interpersonal skills and communication with teammates were the main reasons for Anelka's discomfort during his tenure at Real Madrid. In his book "Soccernomics," he wrote, "After chatting with Anelka for half an hour, you'll find that he always lives in his own world, fears others, and overall isn't an easy player to deal with. His language skills aren't great either; although he's been in England for ten years, his oral expression remains mediocre. I think he really needs a PR consultant." Facing the media, Anelka lacks moderation. On the field, Anelka rarely engages in tussles with opponents or picks up red or yellow cards, nor does he talk much. However, unlike individualistic players like Drogba or Rooney, whose emotions come and go quickly, once Anelka loses his temper, there’s no turning back. Just like what he said to Bernabeu fans during his time at Real Madrid, "Either adapt to me, or stay away," black-and-white, life-or-death scenarios, never giving the other side any negotiating space, and never leaving himself room for compromise or retreat, or even re-choice. Anelka, like Tevez, is a dressing room troublemaker but doesn’t invoke nostalgia like the Argentine beast, instead openly stating that he only pursues two things—money and adventure; he also published an autobiography like Ibrahimovic, yet disregarding human relations entirely, writing that Vieira whipped his face with his genitals, which not only disrespected decorum but also declared a permanent severance with his former club Arsenal… His words and autobiography may be pure and true, but they're too real for people to accept. Thus, although Anelka detests media fabrications, often it's his stray remarks that give the media leverage to amplify the story. Over time, the noisy media machine gradually standardized, labeled, and even demonized his image. A typical example: the media often refers to Anelka as Le Sulk (Mr. Sulky), implying his unpredictable temperament. Is this truly the case? Perhaps not entirely. Anelka spent a brief but quiet year away from the European mainstream league at Fenerbahce, and during Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti's tenure at Chelsea, he learned to play with a smile, producing his best season at the age of thirty. Similarly, those who mock him as a mercenary conveniently forget the invaluable goals he contributed to each of his teams and the significant transfer fees he left behind when departing… So far, Anelka's career has been quite successful. He won double trophies twice with Arsenal and Chelsea, claimed the UEFA Champions League title with Real Madrid, and made significant contributions to Fenerbahce's Super Lig championship. Aside from his dismal performance at Real Madrid, he maintained decent goal-scoring statistics in other teams. However, for perfectionists, Anelka remains a regrettable failure. In the penalty shootout of the quarterfinal between France and Uruguay in the 1997 FIFA U-20 World Cup, Anelka missed a penalty, and then-manager Houllier believed he lacked mental strength, but honestly admitted this flaw. On May 21, 2008, in Moscow, during the UEFA Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester United, Anelka's penalty was saved by Van der Sar, leading to Chelsea's heartbreaking defeat. After the game, Chelsea's manager Grant recalled, "He is the most talented player I've ever seen, but I believe he lacks the passion to succeed." Nine years apart, he took two penalties but failed both times. This mirrors Anelka's career as a player: technically gifted and highly anticipated by fans, yet seemingly unable to reach the professional heights he should have achieved. In the French national team, Anelka participated in a total of 455 minutes across all World Cup and European Championship finals without scoring a single goal. He was long excluded from the national team due to provoking Santini; in late 2009, he scored a golden goal against Ireland to help France qualify for the South Africa finals. The following year, at the age of 31, he made his debut as a senior international but was sent home early after publicly insulting Coach Domeneck, receiving an 18-match ban, which ended his international career. On the club level, fans who love Anelka have speculated countless beautiful yet fatal scenarios: if Anelka had never left Arsenal; if he could have integrated with Real Madrid; if he hadn't wasted time at Fenerbahce, Bolton, etc.; if… what would have happened? Anelka is Anelka, his life refuses hypotheticals. When Henry returned to Arsenal on loan to continue his legend, and Trezeguet joined his beloved River Plate in Argentina, he came to China. "Don't ask why, the truth is—" ESPN commentator Will Teddy wrote. "Anelka possesses a self-belief to break old rules, bid farewell to the past, and the confidence and ambition to venture into any famous stadium in the world and conquer its fans. He has already succeeded in four leagues and is about to step onto the fifth country (China). The challenges brought by such a career path may not be less than proving oneself in the same club." From a prodigy teenager to a late bloomer, Nicolas Anelka takes unconventional paths, carving a unique U-shaped trajectory in world football. Many fans believe that character flaws hindered Anelka's career development and led him to make several unreasonable wrong choices, but for him, perhaps it's precisely these flaws and the "errors" incomprehensible to the world that have shaped his complete life. In the eyes of mainstream British football circles, Anelka's decision to join Shanghai Shenhua is another mistake. Commentator Jason Daisy wrote an article titled "Can Anelka Climb China's Great Wall?" using Paul Gascoigne's struggles with Lanzhou Tianshu in 2003 as a cautionary tale, questioning Anelka's prospects with Shanghai Shenhua. This skepticism isn't new; as early as 2000, former Real Madrid coach Bosques publicly criticized Anelka's adaptability—but the latter consistently scored prolifically at Fenerbahce, Manchester City, Bolton, and Chelsea. In other words, as long as Shenhua wants Anelka's goals rather than his smiling charm, this former Premier League Golden Boot winner won't disappoint. What remains unsettling is Anelka's personality. To this day, Anelka remains fundamentally cold, proud, stubborn, quick-tempered, and independent-minded... He was quiet under the management of Carlo Ancelotti, who excels in motivating players emotionally, but in the Chinese Super League, where there's a language barrier, the league's professionalism lags relatively behind, and the locker room relationships aren't transparent, he might repeat his mistakes, losing his temper and treating Shenhua's coach Tienna, owner Zhu Jun, or even all of Shanghai's fans as his imaginary enemies. Therefore, this legendary chess move worth over 100 million RMB is actually a precarious endgame. Nevertheless, the signing of Anelka by Shenhua deserves applause from Shanghai fans, as having the opportunity to witness this former Premier League champion up close is undoubtedly a rare blessing. Related thematic articles: Here appear two concepts; otherwise, social contradictions will stand out, worthy of praise indeed.