FLORENT MALOUDA: CLUB CAREER EXAMINED

Retired French international FlorentMalouda spent a lot of his club career in the colours of Olympique Lyon in France and Premier League giants Chelsea. FlorentMalouda spent a combined total of ten years representing Lyon and Chelsea.

Malouda had played professional football for both Chateauroux and Guingamp in France before his Lyon career started in 2003. The left winger was part of the successful Lyon era. He won the French Ligue 1 title in each of his four seasons at Lyon.

While he was at Lyon, FlorentMalouda contributed 25 goals in 138 games in the league on the way to win those four titles between 2003 and 2007. The Frenchman left Lyon to join Chelsea in the Premier League in 2007. He spent the most time of his career at Chelsea representing the West London club for six years from 2007 to 2013.

FlorentMalouda scored 35 goals in the Premier League for Chelsea winning the 2009/10 league title under Italian tactician Carlo Ancelotti. In total, he played 149 games for the Blues in the league. His greatest achievement at Chelsea was the 2011/12 Champions League title.

Chelsea won the Champions League title for the first time in their history after seeing off German Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich in the final via penalties. The final was played at the Allianz Arena, the home of Bayern Munich. Malouda and his Chelsea teammates had to withstand adversary to seal football’s holy grail known as the Champions League. Both Bayern Munich and Chelsea failed to score until German international Thomas Mueller scored late in the game.

Malouda and Chelsea were able to recover from the strike from Mueller with the equaliser thanks to the bullet header from a certain Didier Drogba. Drogba’s goal forced extra time with Dutchman Arjen Robben losing a penalty thanks to the save from Blues goalkeeper Petr Cech. Czech Republic football icon Cech also emerged as the hero in the penalty shootout to help Chelsea to the Champions League title.