Not everyone makes it to the top in football, but if you don’t and your friends do, being proud of what they’ve achieved is a great mentality to have.
This is exactly how Xavier Tomas, centre-back for Bnei Yehuda in Israel, feels about how far Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud have come since he played with them at Tours in France.
Giving an interview to So Foot about playing football in Israel, the journeyman centre-back recalled his time with Koscielny and Giroud.
He said: “I’m proud of their journey. It wasn’t easy for them, and they showed to some that it’s not because you’ve started in Ligue 2 or National that you can’t succeed. It shows that nothing is done for you. It’s great what happened to them, but you can’t forget they had to pull their fingers out to get there.
“They already had quality at Tours. Laurent, he was a pleasure to play with in the centre of defence. With Olive (Yep, we’re thinking it’s a nickname), if you didn’t have any options, you’d just pump the ball up to him and let him deal with it (laughs).”
Left out of the latest France squad due to a toe injury, Olivier Giroud has suffered a difficult start to the season following this summer’s Euros.
Laurent Koscielny, on the other hand, has been at centre of Arsenal’s recent form, bailing them out with a few important, albeit one controversial, goals over the past month.
