The Los Angeles Football Club has signed an absolute unit.
Olivier Giroud, an all-time great French center forward, put pen to paper on a Major League Soccer contract that will connect him in L.A. with fellow World Cup winner and good friend Hugo Lloris through 2025 with a club option for one more season, LAFC formally announced on Tuesday.
“You have no idea how big he is,” said LAFC co-president and general manager John Thorrington, who visited the 6-foot-4 Giroud in Italy to facilitate the signing. “He is a unit. Like he is a big guy, with real presence, which you see on the field but when you’re next to it, me being all of 5-foot-8 on a good day, he’s got real stature.
“For us, what we see in Olivier as a player is somebody that fits really well with the team we currently have. What he adds is a real presence that occupies central defenders. And for as big a guy as he is and his actual physical presence, he’s got incredible feet and ability to link play.”
For 18 years, Giroud starred at the top levels of European soccer, winning 11 major trophies while scoring 285 goals in 716 club appearances in France, England and Italy.
Born in the French city of Chambéry, the 37-year-old striker is the all-time leading scorer for Les Bleus, netting 57 goals for his country. Playing alongside his close friend Lloris, Giroud has represented France in three World Cups, winning the title in 2018.
“I am delighted and excited to join LAFC,” Giroud said in a statement a day after confirming his departure from AC Mian. “I can’t wait to get to Los Angeles and to play in front of the 3252 and all of the incredible fans.”
While Lloris came to LAFC from Tottenham at a considerable discount, Giroud will take his place in the middle of head coach Steve Cherundolo’s attack this summer on a free transfer as a high-priced senior designated player.
Seeds of the deal were planted last fall as LAFC began to map out its needs, and conversations began in January as the club decided between sticking with its original plans of making a center forward signing prior to the season or holding the spot open for Giroud following the completion of the Serie A season and one last run for his country in the UEFA European Championship.
“No one came close to unseating him as the placeholder,” Thorrington said. “And we knew that despite not having him for the first part of the season, which obviously would compromise us to some degree, we just felt that overall we are much better with the perfect choice.”
Giroud’s arrival in L.A., however, could further reduce the chances of free agent Carlos Vela returning to the club he has led since its inception in 2018.
“We’ve put our best foot forward with Carlos,” Thorrington said. “There were certain constraints with the decisions we made and the reality of our cap situation. So right now it’s proven difficult to come to an agreement and I don’t know what the future holds in terms of moving forward.”
As it happens, when Giroud joined the Premier League with Arsenal in 2012, the move occurred shortly after Vela’s departure from the Gunners.
Joining a team that includes last year’s MLS Golden Boot winner, fellow Frenchman Denis Bouanga, Giroud plugs into one of the most prolific attacks in the league taking on a similar role to his duties with France and, for the past three years, AC Milan.
“The way we play, oftentimes with our nine dropping in and helping link up play, he’s certainly done a remarkable job of,” Thorrington said. “And actually, later in his career has actually gotten better at that, which has been our more recent analysis.
“Statistically the amount of chances he creates as well as finishes is something we see as ideal for our nine. His mobility, his ability to press, and all of those things with and without the ball, we think he’s going to be a great addition to this current group.”
