Samir Nasri was one of French football’s great talents in the early 2000s, but the playmaker’s career has ended with a whimper despite some impressive early moments
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Back in 2004, Samir Nasri was one of a handful of stand-out talents in a stacked field as France looked to the future.
Les Bleus beat Spain to win the European Under-17 Championships on home soil, with Nasri’s winner helping see off a Furia Roja squad including the likes of Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas. Nasri’s own teammates, meanwhile, included the likes of Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben Arfa and Jeremy Menez, with half of the 18-man squad going on to play senior international football for France or another country.
Born two days after Lionel Messi, himself on the verge of a senior debut for Barcelona at the time, Nasri was one of the babies of that French squad. Only Benzema and goalkeeper Benoit Costil were younger, and the Marseille prospect would end up making his senior debut just weeks after turning 17.
Not only did Nasri fail to hit the heights of his best contemporaries, he didn’t even share their longevity. As he turns 35, Nasri is enjoying his retirement, and while there were undoubted highs, he may be left wondering how much more might have been possible.
Nasri might be best known by some for his stint at Arsenal, but the Gunners had to wait a long time to get their man. The playmaker from the south of France ended up playing more than 100 Ligue 1 games for Marseille, even renewing his deal shortly before clinching a switch to the Emirates Stadium in 2008.
Upon moving to the Premier League, Nasri made particular reference to Arsene Wenger’s role in the move. “Arsene has a great reputation and he is one of the best managers in the world,” he said.
“He has proved that he puts a lot of confidence in the young players and he gives them a chance. It was very important for me to have such a great manager to work with and I’m really looking forward to working with both Arsene Wenger and all my new team-mates.”
The new signing, 21 at the time, was one of a number of French internationals in Wenger’s squad. Bacary Sagna had joined 12 months prior, while the likes of Gael Clichy and Abou Diaby were also at the Emirates Stadium.
While Arsenal only finished fourth that season, Nasri wasted little time adapting. He scored six league goals after taking the number eight shirt once worn by Freddie Ljungberg and established himself as a key part of the team.
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Nasri only spent three years in nNorth London, but that time produced some wonderful moments. The highlight for many came in his second season, with a stunning solo goal in a Champions League victory over Porto.
It was only after a stellar 2010-11 season, though, that he was coaxed away by Manchester City. There was already some bad blood between the teams after Emmanuel Adebayor made the same switch and followed it with an infamous goal celebration, but Nasri’s focus was first and foremost on delivering on the £24million fee.
“It’s always tough when you change and when you go to another team,” he said during a challenging first season in Manchester. “You have to be involved 100 per cent and at some points, I wasn’t.
“I never asked City to pay £24million so it’s not down to me. It was a lot of money, but every transfer now is a lot of money. What you want to do is to give something to the team and the people who brought you here and who trust you. The money and everything else isn’t my problem. After one year, it won’t be a problem.”
While Nasri was far from the most important member of Roberto Mancini’s squad, he scored some big goals in the 2011-12 run-in. A late winner against Chelsea kept City’s title bid alive and a clincher at Wolves in April made sure they remained in the hunt for a league crown they would go on to win in the most dramatic way possible.
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If that first title was about Nasri contributing from the fringes, City’s second top-flight triumph of the Premier League era saw him play a far bigger role. The Frenchman starred time and time again under Manuel Pellegrini and it felt apt that he was the man who helped make sure of the title in the final day victory over West Ham.
“I met with a manager who I talk with regularly and who understands me, and we already have a good relationship,” Nasri told The Mirror in an exclusive interview in 2013. “That made things pretty easy. When you have the talent, it’s always there within you – it’s just a question sometimes of confidence, and that’s probably what I lacked last year.”
“I came to this club to go to the next level, which meant winning the title,” he added. “That’s what happened in my first year. I still watch the re-run of the game and I will never forget that moment. It was so incredible. Now we want more moments like that.”
However, rather than allowing him to kick on, the 2013-14 campaign was as good as it got for Nasri. After a dip in form and some injury issues, the arrival of Kevin De Bruyne at the Etihad Stadium saw him knocked down the pecking order.
Pellegrini’s exit and Pep Guardiola’s arrival moved his exit that bit closer. After a year on loan at Sevilla, he left in a cut-price deal in 2017 having gone from a key man to someone who had become extremely dispensable. His international career, meanwhile, had long been dead in the water after he never fully rebounded from off-field issues during Euro 2012 and had a much-publicised falling-out with manager Didier Deschamps.
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In the years after his City exit, Nasri’s career went from frustrating to sad. A controversy around the footballer’s use of an IV drip service saw any hopes of a revival dented by a lengthy ban from the game, and he has since opened up about the episode.
“I was destroyed because I thought I was going to be banned for two years,” he said. “I didn’t want to play any more after that. I even told [Sevilla boss Jorge] Sampaoli to leave me out, but he always wanted me to play. I was lost, I was anxious and angry with everything. I didn’t show it on the pitch but football was over for me.”
After leaving City, Nasri spent time at three clubs – Antalyaspor, West Ham and Anderlecht – but played just 20 league games across those stints combined.
“An incident really hurt me and changed my relationship with football: my suspension,” he told Le Journal de Dimanche, via Sky Sports, upon retiring in 2021. “I found it more than unfair as I didn’t take any drugs. It was just an injection of vitamins because I was sick. It stopped me in my tracks.”
By the time he stepped away from football, Nasri’s best years were far behind him, but the continued form of some of his contemporaries serves as a reminder of just how quickly things went south.
With Messi winning the 2021 Ballon d’Or and Benzema the favourite to take the prize in 2022, there will always be a temptation to look at others from that generation. Nasri never had the same longevity, but we shouldn’t forget just how much he did during his peak years.
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