Speaking on Wednesday morning, Arsene Wenger revealed that he is ready to wade back into the murky mire of professional football after spending the last few months resting and recuperating in the wake of his grand 22-year Arsenal odyssey coming to an end.
While revealing that he’s received offers of work from all around the world, Wenger mused “I believe that I will start again on 1st January” while talking to Sky Sports.
However, little did we all realised that the 68-year-old actually appears to be planning to return as a player, having made his last competitive appearance in 1981.
Still, that didn’t stop Monsieur Wenger from playing for over an hour in a charity match in his native France on Wednesday evening.
On the day Thierry Henry was unveiled as Monaco coach, Arsène Wenger dusted off his boots for a charity game (here with Didier Deschamps, photo L’Equipe) #rolereversals pic.twitter.com/7UcgQZESzD
— Matt Spiro (@mattspiro) 18 October 2018
According to L’Equipe, the game saw several French luminaries – Wenger, Didier Deschamps, Christian Karembeu, Laurent Blanc, etc – turn out against a team of FC Gueugnon old boys in front of around 10,000 fans at the Stade Jean-Laville.
Organised by the Variety Club, the match was played to raise money for a number of different charities, including one backed by Blanc himself.
The match finished in an entertaining 5-5 draw, but more importantly raised around €21,000 which will now by divvied up amongst the various charitable organisations.