Yahoo Sports Five who played for both Arsenal and PSG ahead of Champions League clash
Arsenal and PSG face off in a huge encounter in the Uefa Champions League on Tuesday evening.
The two sides have only met four times previously in European competition, and the Gunners have never lost a single time; they’ve won one and drawn the other three.
There isn’t a massive amount of shared history between the clubs in that sense, although a small number of players have lined out for both teams in the recent past.
We’ve picked out the most notable footballers to play for both Arsenal and PSG as they prepare to do battle at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal vs PSG: Five footballers who played for both clubs
MIkel Arteta
The Arsenal manager’s playing career began at Barcelona, but he never made a first-team appearance. Instead, his first taste of top-level football came in Paris, where he spent a season on loan.
The Basque native says his time in the French capital had a huge influence on him as player and future head coach. “It was an experience that will stay with me forever, with teammates who helped me and shaped who I wanted to be as a player and ignited something in me to become a manager in the future. There were some very important individuals in that part of my career,” he said this week.
A permanent deal never came to fruition, with Arteta moving to Rangers instead. He arrived in the Premier League via Real Sociedad in January 2005, spending six years at Goodison Park before joining Arsenal. He went on to help end the club’s ten-year trophy drought and become captain.
David Luiz
In 2014 David Luiz made a surprise £50m move from Chelsea to PSG, where he would win successive domestic trebles. He even scored on his return to Stamford Bridge in 2015, helping to knock his former side out of the Champions League.
The Brazilian rejoined Chelsea in a deal worth a reported £34m in 2016, and helped the Blues beat Arsenal in the Europa League final three years later.
Following the final in Baku, the defender moved to the northside of London in an £8m transfer. Although his spell at the club was pockmarked with notable errors, he did help the side beat Chelsea in the 2020 FA Cup final.
Nicolas Anelka
The wild and controversial career of Nicolas Anelka started out in Paris, where he broke into the first team squad as a youth player. He scored one goal in 12 appearances before Arsene Wenger picked him up for a mere half a million pounds.
Anelka played a key role in Arsenal’s Double win in 1998 and was the club’s top scorer the following season. Regardless, fans turned on the striker for a perceived lack of effort and dubbed him ‘Le Sulk’. Unhappy in England, he made the move to Real Madrid that August.
The Frenchman endured a strange year in the Spanish capital, struggling to find the net through the season yet playing a crucial part in their eighth Champions League win.
The forward returned to PSG to much fanfare in the summer 2000, his second spell overlapping with Arteta’s stint at the club. He eventually fell out of favour with the manager and ended up returning to the Premier League in 2001, on loan at Liverpool.
Lassana Diarra
Speaking of Parisian footballers with strange careers, Lassana Diarra is probably a player you forgot was even at Arsenal at one point. He swapped Chelsea for the Gunners in 2007, but only made seven Premier League appearances before leaving to join Portsmouth.
The midfielder only played 24 times in the league over two seasons for Pompey before Real Madrid picked him up. He went on to play for Russian sides Anzhi and Lokomotiv Moscow before returning to France with Marseille.
Diarra had a short spell with Emirati outfit Al Jazira in 2017, but ended his career with PSG, playing under future Arsenal manager Unai Emery. His contract was mutually terminated in February 2019.
Kaba Diawara
We don’t blame you if you don’t recognise the name. Arsene Wenger imported a lot of French players during the nineties, many of whom went on to become Arsenal legends. Kaba Diawara was not one of them.
The striker joined the club from Bordeaux in January 1999, but failed to score in any of his 15 appearances. That summer he moved to Marseille, but was there for just six months before joining PSG.
Diawara again failed to find the net at his new club, spending much of his three-year spell in Paris out on loan. He was at Blackburn for six months in 2000, where he scored his only goal in England football, against Rochdale in the League Cup.
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