Exclusive | Emmanuel Petit: “It’s our generation that built the foundations for what Arsenal became.”

As Arsenal sit at the top of the table under the management of former midfielder Mikel Arteta, Get French Football News caught up with another former Gunner midfielder, Emmanuel Petit, to talk about Arsenal’s past and present and about his most famous goal.

How did it feel to score in a World Cup final?

It’s funny that you’re asking that now as tonight (4th December) we are having our traditional meal for all of the France ’98 squad in Paris – since we won the World Cup and the Euros we meet up at least twice a year. So how did I feel scoring a goal in the World Cup final?

In my own country and with all my family in the stands? The only emotion that I can compare it to on the same level is the days that my daughters were born. When I became a father. I’ve rarely felt such strong, such intense feelings, such an unbelievable feeling of being alive, in day-to-day life, compared to the goal that I scored in the final. It’s an explosion of emotion in the head, you have the feeling that time stands still. At that moment I wasn’t thinking about it entering into posterity, about the impact that it would have. I know that it’s the World Cup final, I know the importance of it – but when I scored the goal it was like I blacked out. I don’t really have a visual or audio memory of it. But I remember that I thought immediately of my family, of my late brother – everything went so quickly through my head. But to answer your question, in terms of emotions the only time that I’ve felt such strong emotions in everyday life is when my daughters were born – I have three daughters and for each birth, I had the feeling of having done something of worth, something good.

We didn’t change people’s lives – we’re not politicians, we’re not