Player Profile - Sebastien Squillaci
One team that is in dire need of bolstering their defence is Arsenal. Over the period of transfer window, Arsenal has seen three of its first choice defenders leaving the club; Sol Campbell, Philippe Senderos and William Gallas, couple that with Arsenal’s perennial goal keeping crisis and you get the shoddiest defence in the world. Scoring goals has never been a problem for Arsenal as they possess embarrassing riches of attacking talent that can unlock any defence in the world. However, their own defence and goalkeeping has led to their demise on more occasions than one in the Premier League and it is high time that Arsene Wenger addresses this problem.
Recently there has been speculation in the market that Wenger is ready to bid for French international defender Sebastien Squillaci.
Wenger sees the Sevilla defender as the answer to some of his defensive woes and thinks that securing the central defender will bolster his beleaguered defence.
Sebastien, throughout his career has played for the biggest clubs in Europe in the top tiers of world football but is not yet a household name across the world.
So here is an attempt to get to know the man better.
Sebastien Squillaci was born on the 11th of August 1980 in Toulon, France. Such is the state of Arsenal’s defence at the moment that Arsene Wenger is ready to betray his age old principles of buying only youngsters and is interested in the 30 year old.
Squillaci began his footballing career with his hometown club of Toulon before Monaco snapped him in 1998.
His career at Monaco did not start with a bang as he failed to establish himself in the first team and dropped to the reserves and was subsequently loaned out to minnows, Ajaccio.
In 2002, with the arrival of Didier Deschamps at Stade Louis, the central defender came back into the fold. Sebastien along with Gael Givet – now with Blackburn rovers – formed a formidable partnership at the heart of Monaco defence and helped his club reach the final of Champions League, defeating the likes of Real Madrid and Chelsea on their way.
In 2006, French giants Lyon came calling for the defender and Squillaci was sold for not a very high sum of money. He spent two seasons at Lyon and in the very first season at his new club, he helped them secure the French League title by a staggering 17 points.
Squillaci is also no stranger to controversy as during his stay in Southern France he had a bust up with his French team mate Hatem Ben Arfa, when allegedly the youngster insulted Squillaci and the man got into a scuffle with Ben Arfa in the locker room. Both the players were suspended from the squad for the next few games.
In the summer of 2008 Squillaci left his home country for the first time when he signed Sevilla to experience the glamour of La Liga. At Sevilla he formed another formidable partnership at the heart of their defence with his compatriot Julien Escude.
Squillaci is very combative and no nonsense defender, who is not afraid to go into any tackle. He is good in the air and also can score goals, having already scored 24 goals in his career so far.
So far Squillaci has 20 international caps but his talent is undoubtedly outweighed by his recognition and achievements, all thanks to Lilian Thuram coming out of one retirement after another.
The Sevilla defender was also part of the renegade French side that self destructed at the summer’s World Cup in South Africa but Laurent Blanc, after his arrival at Les Blues has dropped the defender. However, it only remains to be seen if he has played for the last time for his country or not.
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