Olivier Giroud has revealed that former Chelsea flop Andriy Shevchenko was his childhood hero, and has told of an embarrassing childhood nickname given to him by his brothers.
The 31-year-old was the hero as the Blues beat Liverpool at the weekend, scoring the only goal in a vital 1-0 win.
Shevchenko was less fortunate during his time in west London, failing to make an impression following a record-breaking £30 million move from Milan.
However, the Ukrainian goes down as a legend due to his exploits in Italy, and Giroud says he was a major inspiration.
“Andriy Shevchenko, because he could score every kind of goal; left foot, right foot, head. He was really complete as a striker,” Giroud told the Chelsea match day programme, when asked to name his hero.
“Powerful, quick, intelligent. I had a few heroes: Jean-Pierre Papin, Marco van Basten but Shevchenko was my favourite.”
Giroud went on to say that he was going to become a P.E teacher, if he didn’t make it in football, having begun at Grenoble in his native France.
And he has also told of the nickname he was bestowed by his siblings.
“Yeah, “Chaussettes” [looks away, embarrassed]. It means “Socks”. It was totally ridiculous, but I had a lot of nicknames from my brothers - they loved to give me nicknames from cartoons and films,” He added.
“The one that always came back again was “Chaussettes”, which came from the Kevin Costner movie Dances With Wolves. There was a wolf with white markings on his feet and - I don’t know if it’s the same in English - but he was called “Chausettes” in the French version [the wolf was called Two Socks in the English original].
“I don’t know why, but my brothers decided to give me the same nickname, so I was socks.”
