David Trezeguet on football, finishing and the lost art of the No 9

David Trezeguet will never forget the celebrations, nor what it meant, but the moment itself? That’s a little harder to remember… because he admits it’s not something you’re really conscious of.

The legendary French striker is talking about his soaring first-touch finish that won the Euro 2000 final, to go with the 1998 World Cup, confirming his generation as double champions and one of the greatest international sides of all time.

“Oh yes,” he laughs. “A goal that was historic, important and one of good quality too! But it’s something unique, too, in that it’s largely instinctive.”

It’s also something, however, that Trezeguet feels the game isn’t thinking about as much. Or, at least, thinking about coaching as much. The former striker, the most classic of No 9s s given what a finisher he was, agrees the position is no longer one you really see any more; especially not in Europe.

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“It’s true, European football has changed. It has lost the idea of this player of the area. Some still exist, of course - [Robert] Lewandowski, [Edinson] Cavani, [Luis] Suarez - real players of the area but the systems of play have changed. Other styles dominate, with the irony that they bring great quantities of goals.

"Players like [Leo] Messi, like Neymar, like Cristiano Ronaldo they have other characteristics, but score a lot, much higher than the goal rates of our era. But it’s true. We don’t see those strikers that really stood out in the English game, like Alan Shearer, like [Ruud] van Nistelrooy. Great players, but you see less of them with that talent. There are other characteristics, but we’ve lost that identity of player."

Arsene Wenger once argued that is because central European coaching has basically turned all players into “universalists”, blessed with fundamentally brilliant technique but thereby almost all adaptable midfielders rather than specialists - and it’s an opinion Trezeguet agrees with.

“Yes, it’s true, players now learn different functions, the strikers then turn into central midfielders, central midfielders that turn into attackers. It’s a new era of football. You can’t say football is more or less spectacular, but we’re losing the pure striker, because there are very few left. And, well, you have to adapt.

Trezeguet does admit a further irony, because he feels that fundamental of the position - that pure finishing - is more of an innate talent. You can’t really develop that eye for goal if you don’t have it.

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“It’s something instinctive, an instinct you’re born with, but training does perfect it. Today we have the clear example of players like Ronaldo or Messi, who are players of pure talent who continue to perfect their reality. And that is a total professionalism that players should follow. That’s why I think they’re born with this talent, but then continue to transform themselves, which results in these huge rates of goals.”

Trezeguet will display some old-fashioned number-nine play in London this Sunday, as he joins other players from his era like Cafu and Robert Pires at The EE Wembley Cup.

“It’s a first experience of Wembley for me. That’ll be something unique, and then because when I have the chance to play football, which I love, with people, and it’ll be great to play with Cafu, Pires, players who have made history in football, in different countries and different continents. It’s a great moment, playing football, which is something we’ve always done, and what we love.”

And there’s nothing he loves more than finishing.

The live final of The EE Wembley Cup 2018 is on Sunday 25th November at 2pm, with tickets available via www.ee.co.uk/wembleycup