Le Sulk refused fifth penalty.
NICOLAS ANELKA has sensationally revealed he
REFUSED to take Chelsea's crucial fifth penalty in the Champions
League final. The striker missed the seventh shootout spot-kick in
Moscow to hand Manchester United European football's biggest prize.
But Anelka rejected the chance to take the potential match-winning
kick, leaving it to skipper John Terry instead.
Terry slipped and cracked his effort against the post
to hand United a vital lifeline — and Le Sulk claims he ducked the
opportunity to clinch glory because he was upset at being thrown on
as a late substitute.
The Frenchman, 29, said: "I was asked to take one of
the first five kicks. "But I said 'that is out of the question, I
have come on basically as a right-back and you want me to take a
penalty'. "So I had to go in seventh but Edwin van der Sar pushed
away my shot. All the better for him, that is the game.
"At no point did I think I was going to come on. I was
on the bench for 110 minutes and suddenly I am asked to play, not
even a minute after I was sent out to warm up. "I don’t know if
that has ever happened in a Champions League final, in a match of
that intensity, that a player has gone on to the pitch without
having warmed up.
"When you go on, you have to be ready to run." With
Didier Drogba likely to be shown the door after his red-card shame,
Anelka has added to the turmoil at Chelsea by insisting he wants to
start as the main striker next season.
"When I came here, people told me I would play in a
4-4-2. In England, I no longer need to prove that I am better
through the middle. "Since I arrived, I haven’t played in my
position. Never as a No9, always on the left or the right.
"Until now, I haven’t said anything. I was a newcomer,
I haven’t wanted to make a story out of it because I still didn’t
know the club. "But from next season, I insist I will no longer be
the little newcomer."