logo
Giroud to leave MLS side LAFC

Giroud to leave MLS side LAFC

France 24a day ago

The 38-year-old striker, who joined LAFC in May 2024 from AC Milan, will play his last match for the team on Sunday against Vancouver.
"Olivier has been an exemplary professional during his time at LAFC," team co-president and general manager John Thorrington said. "He brought humility and a winning mentality that helped elevate everyone around him."
Giroud has been heavily linked with a move to Ligue 1 club Lille, according to several media reports in France.
Giroud helped LAFC reach the 2024 Leagues Cup final, where he scored his first goal for the club. He also scored in the 2024 US Open Cup final, helping LAFC win the trophy for the first time.
"I want to thank all of the fans, my teammates and the staff at LAFC for making this an enjoyable stop in my career," Giroud said. "I am happy to have played a part in the success of LAFC."
Giroud has scored nearly 300 goals in more than 700 club matches, winning major trophies at Montpellier, Arsenal, Chelsea and AC Milan.
The 2018 World Cup winner leads France's all-time scoring charts with 57 goals.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

PSG preparing for 'emotional' reunion with Messi at Club World Cup
PSG preparing for 'emotional' reunion with Messi at Club World Cup

France 24

timean hour ago

  • France 24

PSG preparing for 'emotional' reunion with Messi at Club World Cup

Argentine great Messi joined PSG in 2021 from Barcelona, where Luis Enrique had coached him and several other current Inter Miami players. The forward departed in 2023, the same summer the Spaniard arrived at PSG, having won two Ligue 1 titles but failed to bring the French club the Champions League triumph they craved. Luis Enrique eventually led PSG to European success this season as they won the trophy for the first time by thrashing Inter Milan on May 31. "I think the game in an emotional sense is special for me, without a doubt, for the club too and the players who have been here with Messi," Luis Enrique told a news conference Saturday. The coach said he was also excited about facing Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Inter Miami boss Javier Mascherano, all of whom he coached at Barcelona as they won the treble in 2015. "It's beautiful to see these players, who are more than just players for me, it will be special before and after the game," he continued ahead of the match in Atlanta. Luis Enrique said Messi's presence would be a motivating factor for his PSG side, who are one of the leading favourites to win the competition. "If we can't get the ball off them it won't look good for us, because Busquets is still the same, Lionel Messi with the ball is unique," he said. "Luis Suarez, you saw the last goal he scored... and on top of that they have a coach like Mascherano... "For us it's very motivating. We won the Champions League recently, but for us we have a lot of hunger still to show we have room to improve, that we want to compete. "There's no better stage to compete than in this marvellous stadium, facing a team in which there is a man who is called Leo Messi, who is a revered figure not just for Barca fans, but people who enjoy him as a player." No 'slip-ups' Luis Enrique said star PSG forward Ousmane Dembele had trained this week but he would "take no risks" with the French winger for the last-16 clash at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. After Botafogo stunned PSG in the group stage and Inter Miami surprised with a 2-1 win over Porto, Luis Enrique called on his players to maintain their concentration. "When you play in these type of competitions, and I know it perfectly well from coaching the Spanish national team, you cannot slip up whatsoever," said Luis Enrique. "You cannot pause, you cannot be excessively confident, you can't do anything wrong because 90 minutes go by very quickly, and I think it's important that from the start we try and make our mark, impose our game and that's our objective." The coach said the way to try and shackle Messi was collectively, rather than individually. "Messi can dribble (past) any player," added Luis Enrique. © 2025 AFP

Lyon owner Textor to take step back from running club after relegation to Ligue 2
Lyon owner Textor to take step back from running club after relegation to Ligue 2

France 24

timean hour ago

  • France 24

Lyon owner Textor to take step back from running club after relegation to Ligue 2

"Our success on the pitch has not been matched by our success off the pitch," Textor told AFP in relation to Lyon's plight despite them finishing sixth in Ligue 1 in the season just finished to qualify for Europe. Textor runs Lyon in his role as president of Eagle Football, the group which owns several clubs including Brazilian champions Botafogo. But he admitted that his efforts to reduce Lyon's debts and solve their problems have not been enough to convince French football's financial watchdog, known as the DNCG. He therefore now plans to let others take charge of the club's appeal against their relegation, which was announced last Tuesday. "I am going to pull back from this process. We have some people, some partners that are going to take the step forward," he told AFP in Philadelphia following Botafogo's 1-0 defeat to Palmeiras in the Club World Cup on Saturday. "I am an owner. If I had a coach go into a game five times in a row with a bad tactical plan I'd fire him. "As the majority owner of Eagle Football I am clearly not getting it done at the DNCG so we are going to put some different faces in play, and we are going to work very constructively with the DNCG." Textor has just agreed a deal to sell his 43 percent stake in English Premier League club Crystal Palace to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson. The BBC reported that Johnson, a former US ambassador to the United Kingdom, would pay £190 million ($255 million) for the shares. Textor, who bought Lyon in late 2022, believes that money can be reinjected into the seven-time French champions to help their case. Explaining his decision to step back from Lyon, Textor said he felt his "weird" ideas were being misunderstood. "I am the capitalist that shows up with a bunch of weird creative ideas and I don't understand why they are not understood there, and that is hurting the club," he said. "So I know we are going to put some more capital into the equation, we are going to argue for the case we already made, we are going to do it respectfully." Lyon announced on Friday that they had reached an agreement with European football's governing body UEFA to enable them to play in next season's Europa League, provided an appeal against their relegation succeeds. "There is no solvency or sustainability issue with us –- we just cleared the UEFA financial sustainability review," Textor added. "I am very proud of our on-pitch success. We had a relegation squad when I took it took care of the banks, we stabilised the club, we got them back into Europe, and then administratively we get sent down. "It's a pretty odd world for me." © 2025 AFP

'It's a joke': Chelsea boss Maresca slams weather chaos
'It's a joke': Chelsea boss Maresca slams weather chaos

France 24

time2 hours ago

  • France 24

'It's a joke': Chelsea boss Maresca slams weather chaos

Chelsea powered into the quarter-finals after defeating Benfica 4-1 in extra-time after a game that took 4hrs 39mins to complete following a two-hour stoppage due to a storm warning. It was the sixth time that a game has been halted at the tournament due to widely used rules in the United States that require outdoor sporting events to be halted if there is a chance of lightning. Maresca said afterwards the number of games that had been disrupted should prompt a rethink. "For me personally, it's not football," the Chelsea boss said. "It's already (six) games they suspended here. I think it's a joke. It's not football. "It's completely amazing, it's completely something new that I struggle to understand. "I can understand that for security reasons, you have to suspend the game. But if you suspend seven or eight games, that means that probably this is not the right place to do this competition." Chelsea had been poised to wrap up victory after Reece James's second-half free-kick left them 1-0 up with four minutes left to play. But the storm warning forced the players off the field and it was nearly two hours before play resumed. "It was one of the best performances of the last few weeks," Maresca said. "The game was very good for 85 minutes, then we stopped for two hours, and when we started it was a completely different game. It's not the same game because you break the tempo." Maresca emphasised that he remained a fan of the Club World Cup, which was expanded to 32 teams for the first time this year, and is being held in the United States as an informal dress rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup in North America. "It's a fantastic competition. It's the Club World Cup, all the best clubs are here," he said. "But six, seven games suspended? It's not normal. In a World Cup how many have they suspended? Probably zero. In a European (Championship), how many games? Zero. There is some problem." © 2025 AFP

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store