“Very probably my last season”: Olivier Giroud signals the end of his career

The day before his 40th birthday, Olivier Giroud chose L’Équipe to say it. “We can do interviews again next year, with pleasure, but, as a player, I think this is very probably my last season. That is why I am enjoying every moment,” the Lille striker said in an interview with the paper.

That “very probably” keeps the door ajar. The meaning is clear enough: at 40, this Lille season becomes a final lap.

World champion, top scorer for France until Mbappé

First capped in 2011 under Laurent Blanc, Giroud scored 57 goals in 137 games for France, a record until Kylian Mbappé passed him at the last World Cup. He lifted the World Cup in 2018 and played the finals of Euro 2016 and the 2022 World Cup, then left the national team in July 2024 after the Euro. His club record: a Ligue 1 title with Montpellier in 2012, four FA Cups, the Europa League in 2019 and the Champions League in 2021 with Chelsea, a US Open Cup with LAFC in 2024. He turned professional at Grenoble in 2006, made his name at Tours and returned to Ligue 1 in the summer of 2025, thirteen years after leaving Montpellier.

What is left at Lille

His first Lille season brought 11 goals. He has one since the current campaign began. If this year is the last, every away trip becomes a farewell stop, and one figure is left for Giroud to put right before June: that single goal.