The longest transfer saga of the summer came to a close this afternoon, as Arsenal confirmed the signing of Olympique Marseille play-maker Samir Nasri for an Undisclosed fee.
Whilst all the twists and turns have tarnished the excitement around his transfer, one thing remains certain, and that is Arsenal have signed one of the most promising prospects in world football.
To celebrate Nasri’s arrival, Young Guns has gathered an in depth player profile on the 21 year old, along with a selection of images depicting the key moments of his career so far.
Samir Nasri was born on the 26th of June 1987, in the South coast city of Marseille, France. Samir grew up with Algerian parents, who both made the move along with their Grandparents to the much richer France, as they believed their children would have a much better upbringing and life.
His early life was difficult and stressful, as the family lived in the notorious “La Gavotte Peyret” region, which is famed for its poor living conditions, and frequent crime. However, Nasri found a release in football, and his early talents were encouraged by both parents.
Aged 8 years old, he was snapped up by Pennes Mirabeau FC, who helped develop the prospect, and give him something to work towards. After two full campaigns with them, his home town Marseille offered him bigger and better things, and he was signed up to their incredible Academy.
It quickly became apparent that Samir was something very special, and after playing for the club’s youth teams, International honours would beckon. He represented France at both Under 16, 17, with the biggest moment of his young career coming for the Under 17 team. Nasri played a huge part in the side, as they reached the European Under 17 Championship final.
He lined up alongside Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa, with Nasri getting the opening goal against Cesc Fabregas’s Spain. This tournament was one which Arsenal were scouting, and signed Fabregas shortly after.
After the tournament came his promotion to Marseille’s first team, who were desperate to profit from his incredible talents. 13 starts and 11 sub appearances set the base for him to build on, before pushing on during the next campaign. He added to his goal from the previous season with another two, and got experience in the UEFA Cup, and Intertoto Cup.
He would collect the Ligue 1 and Marseille young player of the year awards, as interest came from Arsenal, Real Madrid and Lyon. In September 2007 he contracted a meningitis-like virus, and was forced to remain in Hospital. Shortly after fighting off the illness, he was thrown on a substitute against Liverpool in the Champions League, but could not prevent them from a defeat.
As his fitness came back, he completed the season in blistering form. In the final 10 games, he either scored or created a goal, in every single match. He was on target in the final game of the 07-08 campaign, and admitted afterwards he expected to leave Marseille.
Arsenal moved quickly for his his services, and spoke with the player before he flew out to Euro 2008. Nasri was involved only briefly as France crashed out during the group stages, meaning he was now free to finalise his transfer. On July 11th 2008, the deal was officially announced, with both parties admitting their delight at sealing the move. Samir will wear the number 8 shirt.
Scroll down and click the thumbnails for some Nasri pictures. Featuring his girlfriend, winning the Under 17 Championships, and playing for Marseille.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Great article!!! Loved reading it…
J. Do you expect him to be our last signing?!! Or do you expect another player to join us?!! (even if Adebayor stays)
about time!! wooooooooooohhhh
Finally we have signed him!!!
So now everyone can stop moaning about it and get on with their lives :-)
Happy that we have got him but it dragging on has cast somewhat of a cloud over the whole thing, would have been extatic if it had been all sorted start to end in like a week but hey ho who cares we have him now.
I’m really looking forward to see this bloke playing for us. Na Na Na Nasri.
Gunner be a fantastic player for us. come on u gooners!!!!!
Finally.. :)
So now the question is how much do you think he will play this season?
I think he will be slowly drafted in so that he can get used to the Prem as we did with Eduardo but would expect that bu Christmas he would be a first team regular depending on how he settles of course!
WHOOPDIE WHOOPDIE DO. WE’VE SIGNED NASRI IN THE MOST ANTI-CLIMATIC SIGNING IN THE HISTORY OF FOOTBALL.
IT CAN ONLY BE BETTERED IN THAT REGARD BY THE POSSIBLY SIGNING OF BITCHOFF.
the only good thing is we won’t be linked with bloody nasri anymore and for that i rejoice.
YEEAAH!! :D
I think we all know he wont be our last signing of the summer, our squad was thinish before, and some players have left so we need to fill those gaps.
I would rather we wait and find the right players.
yyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!
I just watched the new season training session clips on Arsenal TV Online. It was extremely competitive, alot young players want to make their mark quickly to Wenger before going to Austria Camp
Mate, I enjoy reading this blog, but in the last 2 or 3 days I must’ve read the phrase “one of the most promising prospects in world football” about 10 times. Come on dude! Not EVERY one of our young players is THAT exciting!
Fantastic news. Welcome to the club Samir.
is there any video of preseason training session
On Arsenal TV Online
I agree J this can’t be the last signing because wow are squad so was thin and now its lightweight!!!!
I just hope it aint Hunteler
there some site which i found on goonernews saying that he used the webster rule to sign for arsenal, is this true????
Supergunner07 any chance you can upload those training clips on youtube… I don’t have a creditcard and I would love to watch those clips! So please if you can help out I would appreciate it a lot man!! (p.s. here in Holland we don’t use creditcards a lot we use cash but I reckon if I send Arsenal some cash through a letter they wouldn’t accept it :P)
Lance – Don’t worry, we’ll never sign Huntelaar in a million years.
Gunner4Life- I doubt it, because I think the Webster rule only applies to players over 27 or 28.
How do u know he is wearing number 8, it doesn’t say it on arsenal.com does it ?
Supergunner7 – I cant see those clips at Arsenal TV Online – can you provide a link?
J. – Toulalan, Nigel De Jong, Miguel Veloso, Yaya Touré, Ruben De La Red, Chantome?!!
Lance – I don’t expect any signings anymore I put my faith in Gilberto, Ramsey, Denilson, Diaby, Song for the midfield role and Kolo Touré, Gallas, Song, Senderos, Djourou, Nordveit for the centre back positions.
i’m inclined to agree i also have noticed how frequently you use the term or phrase the most promising prospect in world football…where as in this case you m ight be right not everyone that comes along will live up to their potential others are simply overated anf hyped due to agents etc etc…having said that its the only criticism of your site i have…its top notch your doing a great job and i love being one of your regular readers….i do have a proposition for you though…i think it would be a great idea if you and arsenalinsider got together and merged your blogs….they are the top site for all things arsenal minus the youth section which you clearly dominaste something rotten lol…..please oh please make a call or send an email and enquire into making an online hq for gooners everywhere…i think between you and fabregas the king no one (including the tabloids) are as accurate, well informed, or as honest as you two….both with extremely educated opinions….the bottom line is these two sites rule the net for arsenal blogs i think it would be good for everyone fans and blogs alike…..please please please lol i’ve found that most arsenal fans who know about one know about the other and frequent both pages regularly so please save us the trouble of flicking sites everyday ; ) much love
ARSENAL TILL I DIE
hey guys firt tymer here, here are my thots on wengers team thie season, what i think he is trying to do.
i think arsene is trying to have the quickest team in the premier league with guys like nasri, rosicky, fab, walcot, vela playing the sort of role ronaldo plays where by they interchange wings and play centraly at the same tyme, he wants to have a team where by this 4/5 guys cant be marked and are so in sync with each other that no defence can cope with, if ade lives he will in my opinion 100% bye a guy who can score goals not a top gol scorer from some team no but a guy who has the work rate of ade or kuyt like player a guy of wich defenders will be concentrating on as the likes of dudu and bentner can score and if he doent buy that then he’ll buy another eduardo fox in the box.
defence maybe a diaby, denilson or most likely song and diaby will get the DM position back four will remain the same, with this system our defence will be with less work just overlaping and gallas and toure will not be moving up alot with those amaizing four infront teams will be cought on a counter or there defence will be scared to move up coz they are scared of the F-4
wana bet
so i guess next signing is one striker and a defender
carlos vela replaced helb trust me he has nasri is addition walcot rosicky eboue wen worst comes to worse diaby are wingers/strikers, fabregas,denilson,merida(watch out for him),song and diaby creatives and bentner, dudu and my prediction strikers
trust me i get few things wrong in regards to arsenal so wait and see
great post J.
I can honestly say your site is more informative than arsenal.com themselves.
so you must be the best arsenal blog around.
Too bad they don’t just hire you to update their page.
Moushin, i couldnt get it to work on m youtube account, i will try again in the future.
Matt, Open up Arsenal TV Online then click on the “The Club” tab then “General” tab
Cheers mate, couldnt find it – they hid it away quite nicely!
Be careful guys, hosting ArsenalTV videos on YouTube is illegal, its a breach of copyright. If they find out you did it you can get sued and your contract cancelled.
I think we have to get new players, lets just wait and see. Lets not chase transfers..
Cheers for the compliments :)
The key work in my statements is PROSPECT
im not saying they will make it, by saying prospect it implys that they have shown promise. Sure i have used the words alot, but ive been talking about Wilshere, Barazite, Nasri.. and they are all exciting players.
If i was talking about Steer, Dunne, Fonte, Ogogo then i wouldnt use the phrase so much if at all. Its all relative.
I bet NOone saw that coming hahahahaHAHAhahaha.
God bless Arsenal.com
Supergunner07 – thanks for trying but if what J. says is true than you don’t have to try anymore. Maybe you can send it to me through msn?!! Post your email and I will add you, we can talk about Arsenal as well ;)
J. – Thanks for the warning!
put up your email Or send it via my youtube channel. Search “supergunner07” on youtube
there is a section for “sending msg” to the channel holder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkKHneVsWPI
there is the link for nasri interview
Is it true he will be number 8, does anyone have any confirmation of that? If its true, hopefully someday he’ll be given the number 10.
I want to watch the online training sessions on Arsenal TV, I subscribe to Setanta tv but have never used Arsenal TV online – what do I have to do? how much is it?
Cheers for the help.
Supergunner01 I send you my email through youtube thnx!
45 per year & 3.99 per month
Just wrote a piece for Carlos Vela News :)
http://carlosvelanews.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/mexican-fans-prefer-to-watch-arsenals-vela-than-tottenhams-dos-santos/
What a beauty Nasri’s girlfriend is! Wow.
This is the most reliable blog I have ever seen(absolutly bullshit-clean).Can you tell me what’s going on with bischoff?.I haven’t heard about him for more then a week
yeah i been wait till last may at last today the best of my life
sorry guys What Nasri kit number is it 14? an’t
Theo 14 as well
it say here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFDqW1o_zgU&feature=related
Tino – http://www.arsenal.com first team and look for number 8 you’ll find a Fench player from Algerian descent smiling at ya…
It just a montage .
The official squad list is here:
http://www.arsenal.com/squad.asp?thisNav=First+Team
J, one thing about Pedro. Most players from South America just need two years in Spain to get a spanish passport, but not brazilian, they need three years. I don’t know why, I think it’s because of that most countries have spanish as their language, but Brazil have portuguese.
Not suprised the mexicans picked Vela, hes been on fire for the national side. We shouldent under estimate Dos Santos thou, i was shocked Barca let him go considering his age and the promise he has already shown. He can be very dangerious next season.
After looking at the squad list I realized something. In the unfortunate situation that Clichy would get injured, we might have a starting line up with players numbered 1-11. This is actually quite likely in that given scenario and would look like this:
———-Almunia————–
1
Sagna–Toure–Senderos–Gallas
3 5 6 10
Nasri–Fabregas–Diaby–Rosicky
8 4 2 7
———Dudu–RvP————
9 11
That would be quite amazing to see and something probably has not happened at Arsenal for a long time. Couple of years ago we used to have so high numbers in our squad, there was hardly anybody numbered with one digit.
True and looking at the squad it is a possibility, i wouldent say likely but its definatly possible that we might end up with all those players lined up for one game.
Nyway, im guna do some more push-ups (ive gone fitness crazy…must be old age, to be honest im not too arsed about being fit, i meen a smoke so there isnt much chance of that unless i quit, i just wanna look fit). Nd…then im guna go get drunk :)
Happy day, Nasri is finally ours, Crouch managed to get the fuck outa Anfield and Carsons way looks open after the signing of that Keeper, two players who i’d go as far to say as having been mistreated by Benitez. Finally Ronaldo has managed to piss off Utd fans even more what with siding with Blatter, hopefully Fergy will blow soon and he’ll be off to Madrid, not by plane, boot propelled id imagine… if u get my drift.
Supergunner07 where ya at boy?!!
I would say its far to early to start planning the team yet, for sure will get more players.
Yes Nasri is confirmed as number 8 on the official squad list.
Nasri will be a star and he will actually play games instead of sitting in the hospital all season. now all we need is a dominant CB and someone to replace adebayor if he goes, someone like Santa Cruz or Jan Koller.
J, what happened to the signing of Amaury Bischoff?.
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yihhuuuu welcome nasri
Me r u sure jan koller?? He has left his best days behind…….currntly he is nt even good enuff 4 a bottom half team…..
I can’t see us signing a centre back. We have Toure, Gallas, Senderos, Djourou and Song, more than enough.
He’ll obviously sign a replacement for Adebayor if he were to leave, and possibly a defensive midfielder.
http://www.arsenal-opinion.com
Who ever has seen the pre season video who has impressed , out of barazite , simpson , wilshere and looks to be pushing for a first team spot ?
atique – Koller is very good player and has scored over 50 goals for the czechs. top player.
the nasri interview is great
“atique – Koller is very good player and has scored over 50 goals for the czechs. top player.”
True, but he is getting old now, hes good enough, just maybe not as a starter. I doubt he’d want to leave to become our back-up striker either and we dont rly need a striker for that matter.
Arsenal should buy swedish striker henok goitom. he would fit perfecly into arsenal and he is cheap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOE-EPD1epw
I think that Samir Nasri will fit right into the playing style of Arsenal’s game. Arsene Wenger buys the right people for the positions he needs and then mentors them and gets them up to first team football playing level.
I also like your blog a lot. I am a big fan of Arsenal and it is great to read all your in depth analysis and news and biographies.
I also have a blog and I just posted one about Football news. You can go and check it out at http://tddi.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/the-daily-dose-of-information-episode-6-the-stadium-4/
Thanks a lot.
Crazysah
If hleb goes off wenger will need another attacking midfielder. Add that to defensive mid and hopefully a defender. And i’m over the moon that Nasri joined!!
Guys, have you seen this yavru kartal muhammed kid from Turkey? He is so awesome. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I bet he is much better than the kid man utd got last time.
You got to check ut on youtube. He is a definite future star. I read that Barcelona are after him. Hope Wenger gets him in time.
happy 4 nasri. bischoff should be signed in a coupla of days time. add that 2 huntelaar and arsenal is as good as two major trophies next season. please guys dont let us use swear words in describing our own.
nasri, ur gurl is beautiful
does wenger have a dilemma in his hands? a coach out there should tell me how he wants to play nasri, fabregas, gilberto, vela, hleb, ramsey, amaury, rosicky, walcott, hoyte et al and leave them all contented.
well, arsene knows
here is the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiUA_JriWMs&feature=related
Could have done with seeing more of Nasri at the Euros!
samir nasri is a great youngster
happy new year!!