Legends
Happy Birthday, Sonny Anderson!
An impressive debut and success in the principality
Born in Brazil in the small inland city of Goiatuba, Anderson was a slow burner, spending the early part of his career with Vasco de Gama, but failing to establish himself as a regular with the Rio de Janeiro-based club. A similarly fruitless spell followed at Guarani, before he left for Europe at the age of 22, joining Swiss side Servette. He was a massive hit there, helping the team to the league title in his first season and scoring eleven goals in the first half of his second before joining Marseille on loan in January of 1994. He continued to score with regularity at the Vélodrôme, netting 16 times in six months, but after the club suffered an administrative relegation, he took the most consequential step of his career to date, joining AS Monaco.
Playing in a side that included a young Lilian Thuram and a teenage Thierry Henry, he scored 11 goals in his first season, but nearly doubled that in his second, finishing top scorer as Monaco missed out on the title by just four points in 1996. The following season saw the team's improvement continue apace -- Anderson netted 19 goals and was named the league's best player as the Principality side won the title by eight points over Paris Saint-Germain. By this point, though, Barcelona came calling and Anderson joined the Catalan side that summer.
🙌 Une légende fête ses 54 ans ce jeudi 🔴🔵
🎂 Joyeux anniversaire à notre ancien capitaine et buteur 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝑨𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏🥳 pic.twitter.com/3m6IE6CXIo— Olympique Lyonnais (@OL) September 19, 2024
making the difference for OL
While his two seasons in Spain proved fruitless for him on a personal level, his return to Ligue 1 in 1999 was anything but, as he joined an ambitious Olympique Lyonnais side which had been steadily improving under the ownership of Jean-Michel Aulas. While he would see his former side win the title in his first season back, Anderson finished top scorer with OL coming third to seal a place in the Champions League.
Anderson was again top scorer in 2000-01, but Les Gones would fall short of the title, with FC Nantes taking the honors, something which fueled the Brazilian's hunger to win. Speaking to the club's website on the 20th anniversary of their first title, he said, "When I came to Lyon, I was a risk to the club. I was injured and my transfer was expensive. But lo and behold, there was a project: win titles. When we won, there were a lot of people at the celebrations because the fans’ passion for us was fabulous." After that first title in 2001-2, Anderson did the same again the following season, before ending his career with spells in Spain and the Middle East, having made his mark in France in no uncertain times.
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