After many years, Lisandro Lopez, formerly of Lyon, has let out all his frustrations regarding his exit from the Ligue 1 side.
Speaking to Identidad Racinguista, the 35-year-old, currently playing for Racing in Argentina, opened up about his career and revealed why he never returned to play football in Europe after his time in France, and it isn’t pretty.
Involving failed moves to both Tottenham and Chelsea, Lopez cocked, aimed and pulled the trigger on his former club.
He said: “After three years and nearly 80 goals, the manager (Rémi Garde) decided to play me on the left and Gomis up top, Lacazette on the right and Grenier or Gourcuff behind. I wasn’t happy. After six months, I gave him the captain’s armband and said I’d rather be a sub than play in that role. At the end of the season I had the chance to go to Juventus, but the chairman refused.
“A week from the end of the transfer window, Villas-Boas called me to play for Tottenham. We agreed everything, and the chairman again shut the door. That’s when I learnt that AVB had made an offer for me with Chelsea, but no one ever told me. I was so disappointed that I promised myself to never play in Europe again.”
With Racing, at the time, unable to pay the fee required to acquire his services, the striker ended up playing in Qatar for a while before returning to his home country.
Now back in Argentina, the veteran goalscorer is still very prolific, picking up nine goals in his first 11 appearances this season in the league.
It really is a case of ‘what could have been’ for Tottenham fans, as, at the time, Lopez was widely regarded as one of the better strikers in Europe, at least outside of the usual suspects.
The stats simply speak for themselves, scoring 63 goals in 142 appearances for Porto before notching 82 in 168 games for Lyon until he left in 2013.
