Here’s the first trailer for a Netflix documentary that I have been looking forward to for a little while, Anelka: Misunderstood, a new documentary that focusses on French international footballer Nicolas Anelka.
Bad boy of the French football, arrogant, precocious, misunderstood, scorer, unclassifiable, genius, unmanageable… Despite a having a career of almost 20 years at the highest level, Nicolas Anelka is still hard to define. From sporting feats to controversies, he remains a mysterious persona for many observers. It’s an image that Anelka himself has cultivated.
For seven years, Franck Nataf has followed Nicolas Anelka in his day-to-day life. His experiences in China, India, his life far away from France, his children’s birthdays, his moments of relaxation with friends Paul Pogba, Thierry Henry or Patrice Evra. The director has created a real documentary which lifts the veil on a controversial sporting personality. The former number 9 is revealed in a different light, as a father, a footballer, sharing his experience of being at the top level. Because everything comes back to football.
For the first time and exclusively, Anelka revisits the entirety of his career, in a documentary which covers 40 years of a richly lived life. Nicolas Anelka reveals all and describes the life of a professional footballer at a time when football and business join together. The pressure, the money, the glory, the betrayals, the sobering reality of the trade process, relationships with coaches, competitiveness and even hatred between players. The path of Nicolas Anelka paints an unsettling picture of the reality of modern football.
He revisits episodes which transformed his career. The great moments of a sportsman, coming from Trappes in the impoverished Parisian suburbs, who very quickly became a phenomenon: blossoming at Arsenal, the European Championship title with Les Bleus, the English Premier League title with the Gunners and Chelsea. On one night of victory against England, Didier Deschamps, captain of Les Bleus, champions of the world, would say: “France has found its Ronaldo”.
He also talks about the lowest moments, the 2010 World Cup, the insults he allegedly directed at his manager, and his “immature tough guy” image.
Retracing the steps of Nicolas Anelka takes us through 20 years of football, revisited through the biggest competitions: the 1998, 2006 and 2010 World Cups, the 2000 European Championship, the Champions League, and the English, French and Spanish championships.
This one lands on Netflix on 5th August.
Here’s the trailer.
