“I found out he was signing for Arsenal in a nightclub in Magaluf and that killed me”

Francid Jeffers He still remembers the exact moment he knew his career was going to take a gigantic turn. It was not in an office or in a meeting with his agent. It was in a nightclub Magaluf, in Mallorca, in the middle of the foam party.

The former English striker, now 45 years old, signed for Arsenal in the summer of 2001 after four years in the Everton. He was only 19. And he found out about the movement in the least expected place.

“I was at the BCN nightclub in Magaluf. Honestly, that’s where I was when I got the call to tell me the deal was going through at Arsenal. They said, ‘You better go home,’ and I said, ‘Can it wait until tomorrow?’ The foam has just risen.'” He told it on Wayne Rooney’s show on the BBC.

Jeffers landed in Highbury with enthusiasm overflowing. He was a young boy, convinced that he could make his way in one of the giants of the Premier League. He entered the locker room with confidence, although the reality of Arsenal at that time was imposing.

In their position they played Dennis Bergkamp, ​​Thierry Henry, Nwankwo Kanu and Sylvain Wiltord. A top-level striker’s poker. Still, Jeffers came determined. “I went in there, 19 years old, with broad shoulders and thinking I was going to get someone off the team.”

A signing for history

It wasn’t like that. In three seasons with the Gunners he played 39 games, scored eight goals and distributed three assists. During that period he also returned to Everton on loan. As time went by, Jeffers himself admitted that that jump may have been too big. The forward acknowledged that his signing for Arsenal “killed my career.”

Then he began a much more itinerant career. He went through nine different clubs: Charlton, Rangers, Blackburn, Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle Jets, Motherwell, Floriana y Accrington Stanley.

The striker hung up his boots in 2013, with the indelible memory of that call in Magaluf that took him out of a foam party to take him straight to Arsenal.