Anelka: L'Incompris

I never followed Nicolas Anelka's career with a lot of attention, but he's the kind of player who was always on your radar if you cared about football during the 2000s. His reluctance to be a superstar is supposed to explain the drama he brought wherever he played, but a documentary that sides so definitively with its subject is bound to feel unsatisfying in the end.

The first half of the movie is a well structured presentation/self-portrait of Anelka the player and Anelka the man, a complicated character who can, indeed, be easily judged as flippant and arrogant. The second half becomes mired in director Eric Hannezo's efforts to stick to his "misunderstood" subtitle, at the cost of sacrificing the documentary's chronology. That's why more controversial events of Anelka's career are brought forward, time spent at various clubs is conspicuously compressed or wholly ignored, and the story concludes on France's scandalous 2010 representation at the World Cup, with Anelka in the limelight.

In many ways, it feels like Anelka is a version of Ibrahimovic that was disliked. The documentary offers little insight as to why that might be, beyond pointing fingers at the media and managers, with some of the better insights coming from former Arsenal honcho, Arsene Wenger. So while there are definitely interesting facets to Hannezo's docu, the numerous exculpations make for a less than engaging watch, leaving too much unsaid - or unasked.

As a Chelsea fan I am a big fan of Nicolas Anelka as I thought overall he did a really good job at the club winning the premier league and FA Cup. But Anelka is also known as a journeyman playing in multiple countries and for some of the biggest clubs in the world. He also is known as a trouble maker causing many problems in his career and here is the Netflix documentary about his career - Anelka: Misunderstood and here is my review for it.

First of all this documentary does a great job in reminding football fans just how good a player Anelka was. Some of the goals he scored were outrageous and to think of the clubs he has played for such as PSG when he was 16, Real Madrid, Liverpool and Arsenal.

It also looks at some of the bigger controversies in his career, such as when he was accused of making an anti semetic gesture or when he led a revolt in the french national team at the 2010 World Cup. That one in particular takes up a large part of the film and it is really interesting seeing how the incident took place and having the other people such as Patrice Evra and Thierry Henry recount the event.

But this film does suffer, first of all from the fact that is a film. Anelka has such an interesting career that honestly this could have been the same length as The Last Dance based on Michael Jordan and been fascinating. But it feels like it skips over interesting points in his career such as his time in Bolton or his time playing in China which is just missing here.

Also this film is incredibly bias, it makes Anelka look like a guy who can do no wrong, even though it is clear he is very egotistical and not a team player at all. I was watching throughout and I was waiting for the opposition to him, but it never comes and feels like a puff piece created by Anelka's people.

Overall, I enjoyed this documentary because I am a football fan, there are some clear issues here but if you are a football fan then this is a good watch about a memorable and unique player.

Rating - 7/10.

The documentary is solely about Anelka. I'm a soccer fan and i always wandered why he moved to different teams always and why he had short term contracts. The documentary only recommended for soccer fans , or people who want to kill time.

Why there wasn't any scenes from Turkey ? There was a quite short one It would have better to talk about the missed Turkish Super League title at last game while he was playing for Fenerbahce

Coincidentally, I watched this right after I finished The Last Dance. Both documentaries covered successful athletes but there was also a lot of drama. Both men had similar personalities. I don't know how to put this, but when I watched MJ's story I saw a true team player. Whereas in this documentary I thought Anelka was a capricious athlete always clashing with his managers. I do get the part that he was unfairly treated for 2010 World Cup scandal, but overall I just thought some of his behavior was a bit too much for a team player.

Besides this, story line is a bit dull and superficial. Most of the documentary is like I did this and that. I didn't deserve this etc. There was nothing much about emotions of players in a team environment or some sort of a connection.

Everything set aside, I did enjoyed watching him play back in the day. I think this documentary doesn't make the cut for him. Also, if you haven't watched The Last Dance I strongly recommend it.