Olivier Giroud has spoken at the PUMA kit launch about his decision to retain the number 12 shirt for Arsenal next season. The French international who has played 134 games for the Gunners, scoring 58 goals has explained why he is choosing to not pursue the number nine shirt at the club: “I don’t want to change the number… I’m not superstitious. I have the nine with the national team and it was available”.
Giroud moved on to suggest that the Arsenal fans played a part in his decision not to swap to the number 9: “I don’t want to change because people have bought my shirt with the number 12”.
The number 9 shirt recently became available after the sale of Germany international Lukas Podolski to Galatasaray for an initial fee of £1.8 million. Podolski scored 31 goals in 82 games for Arsenal, including the 2012/13 Arsenal goal of the season against Giroud’s former side Montpellier in the UEFA Champions League.
Giroud acknowledges the importance of the number 9 shirt as the lead attacker but argues that his performances would not be affected by which shirt number he wore: “I know the number 9 is for the attack leader but I will not be a better player if I wear a different number”.
Giroud will hope to carry on and even improve upon his goalscoring record for the Gunners in the upcoming season.
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