Sylvain Wiltord

Sylvain Wiltord

Personal information
Full name	Sylvain Wiltord
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Olympique Lyonnais
Number	22
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of April 1, 2007

Sylvain Wiltord (born May 10, 1974 in Neuilly-sur-Marne) is a French football forward whose parents come from Guadeloupe, France. With the French national team, Wiltord has won Euro 2000 and reached the finals of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Wiltord played for Stade Rennais (1992-97), Girondins de Bordeaux (1997-2000), Arsenal F.C. (2000-04), and since 2004 has been a member of Olympique Lyonnais.

For France, Wiltord has been capped 90 times, scoring 26 goals. One of those goals came in the 94th minute of the Euro 2000 final, tying Italy. France then won the title on a golden goal by David Trézéguet. He also played for his country in the next two World Cups and in Euro 2004.

Wiltord was signed by English club Arsenal for a club-record £13,000,000 in August 2000, weeks after scoring at the Euro 2000 final. He played 175 times for the Gunners, occasionally pairing Thierry Henry up front or otherwise starting either from the bench or on the wing. When he's contract with Arsenal expired in the summer of 2004, Wiltord took the opportunity to return to France with Olympique Lyonnais. The highlight of his Arsenal career was scoring his goal at Old Trafford, a 1-0 win which clinched the 2002 FA Premier League title at the home ground of arch-rivals Manchester United. He scored a total of 49 goals for the club, and was part of Arsenal's 2003-04 unbeaten season, though did not feature much towards the end of the campaign and near the end of his Arsenal career.

Moving to Lyon, Wiltord found further success, winning two league titles and reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League in successive seasons.

Honours

• Euro 2000 with France
• Confederations Cup in 2001 and 2003 with France
• French Ligue 1 championship in 1999 with Girondins Bordeaux, in 2005 and 2006 with Olympique Lyonnais.
• FA Premier League 2002 and 2004 with Arsenal
• FA Cup in 2002 and 2003 with Arsenal
• FA Community Shield in 2002 with Arsenal
• Best striker of French Ligue 1 championship in 1999 with Girondins Bordeaux (22 goals)

External links

• Photos & stats at sporting-heroes.net
• Statistics at soccerbase.com