11 fun facts about Alexandre Lacazette

Although Alexandre and his family hail from France, the Lacazettes are actually of Guadeloupean origin. He was born to parents who left their native nation in the eastern Caribbean and moved to France in search of a better life. The island chain of Guadeloupe is located in the southern Caribbean Sea and is a French overseas territory.

Alexandre is the youngest of the four Lacazette brothers. While the striker went on the represent the French national team, his brother Benoit played in the Swiss second division and the French fourth division.

His cousin, Romuald, currently plays for FC Wacker Innsbruck in the Tiroler Liga in Austria, the fourth division of Austrian football. He was once on the books of Paris Saint-Germain, but never broke into the first team.

At the 2010 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, France locked horns against Spain, two years after La Roja had defeated Les Bleus in the UEFA European Under-17 Championship. The two sides comprised of the majority of the same players.

Trailing 1-0, France came from behind to win 2-1 in the final with Lacazette scoring the winner in the 85th minute from a Gael Katuta cross.

Lacazette would also go on to represent France at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2011, where the French finished in third place. He finished as the joint top scorer of the tournament with Brazil's Henrique Almeida and Spain's Alvaro Vazquez, netting five goals.

Although Lacazette's international career never took off due to the presence of the likes of Karim Benzema, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, and Kylian Mbappe, the Lyon man did manage to score three goals for France's senior national team.

Interestingly, two of those goals came against the then-world champions Germany in a friendly between France and their European rivals in November 2017. The game eventually ended in a 2-2 draw. He hasn't been called up to the France side since then.

His first-ever international goal came against Denmark in March 2015.

With his 26th goal in a Ligue 1 away win over Reims on April 26, 2015, Lacazette beat Andre Guy's previous mark of 25 Division 1 goals for Lyon set in the 1968–1969 campaign. With a total of 27 goals, he finished the 2014–15 Ligue 1 season as the league's leading scorer.

Two seasons later, he broke his own record by scoring 28 league goals in what was his final season in Lyon before signing for Arsenal.

The Frenchman grew up idolising Thierry Henry and would later go on to play for Arsenal, the team where Henry had the most success as a player.

"He's our version of a young Thierry Henry," said Jean-Michel Aulas, president of Lyon, in making the comparison when Lacazette was scoring goals in Ligue 1 left, right, and centre.

The great man himself expressed appreciation for the goal-scoring ability of the striker.

The legendary Arsenal player said, "What he is doing is extraordinary."

The Frenchman has scored 30 goals in all competitions for Lyon this season, with 26 of those coming in Ligue 1. He is on course to break his own record of 28 goals scored in 2016-17.

At the moment, he is on 159 goals from 312 appearances for Lyon. In a 3-3 draw with Lille on March 10, 2023, Lacazette scored twice late in the game to tie Bernard Lacombe for the second-most goals in Lyon history with 149.

Six days later, he scored his 150th goal for the team in a 1-1 draw with Nantes, moving him into second place in club history behind Fleury Di Nallo's 222 goals.

Di Nallo played for Lyon from 1960 to 1974 and was dubbed le petit prince de Gerland (little prince of Gerland) by the Lyon supporters.

It was reported in May 2017 that a verbal agreement had been made for Lacazette to join Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2017. However, on June 1 of that year, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld Atletico's ban from signing players for two transfer windows—the first from January to February 2017 and the second from June to August 2017 - which FIFA had imposed on the club in July 2016 for violating FIFA rules regarding the signing of minors.

On July 5, 2017, Lacazette agreed to a five-year contract with Premier League team Arsenal for a club-record transfer fee.

Lyon revealed that the fee was an initial €53 million (£46.5 million) plus up to €7 million (£6.1 million) in potential bonuses.

The amount exceeded the previous record set by Corentin Tolisso's move to Bayern Munich three weeks earlier, which stood at €41.5 million (£37.7 million). Additionally, the transfer fee broke the previous Arsenal record of €50 million (£42.5 million), which the club paid to Real Madrid for Mesut Ozil in 2013.

In his Premier League debut on August 11 against Leicester City, Lacazette scored after 94 seconds to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead in a 4-3 victory. In both of Arsenal's subsequent home games, Lacazette managed to score.

First, he scored Arsenal's second goal in a 3-0 win over Bournemouth, followed by a brace in their 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.

With his strikes against West Brom, Lacazette made history by becoming the first Arsenal player to score in each of his first three league home games since Brian Marwood in September 1988.

In his first few months as an Arsenal player, the Frenchman not only provide joy to the Emirates crowd with his consistent goal-scoring but also entertained them with his famous 'trumpet' celebration.

Lacazette disclosed that the origin of his 'trumpet' celebration was a bet he placed with a friend when they were at Lyon.

"It was based on a bet with a friend of mine who really likes music that involves trumpets," said Lacazette, speaking to Arsenal Player.

"It was a joke between the two of us. That's how it all started, it was all a bet. I've just kept doing it and I really like it.

"The first time was in a friendly: Lyon against Sporting Lisbon, I believe, and then I did it in the league at Nancy."