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 Anyone who has heard Glenn Hoddle refer to Arsenal's record goalscorer as 'Thierry Hen-ray' may question whether he ever really settled in France, but the truth is he was never more at home than in Ligue 1.
Blessed with superior talent in both feet, the attacking midfielder dazzled fans the length and breadth of England during his 12-year stint with Tottenham Hotspur, yet his lack of pace and aristocratic reluctance to do the dirty work of defending often singled him out for criticism. In addition to that, the self-proclaimed 'diamond' – as in, "well you don't rub a diamond in the mud, do you?" – often felt he was, "watching a tennis match with the ball being whacked from one end of the field to the other."
Throw the post-Heysel ban on English clubs playing in Europe into the equation and it was not hard to understand why the Hayes-born enigma announced he would be leaving for foreign shores at the end of the 1986-87 season. But although his £750,000 transfer to Monaco was one of the defining moments of the 'English invasion', the curious circumstances of the deal were played out between two men who would later reverse the cultural exchange.
Gérard Houllier was the first Coach to line up for the England international while at Paris Saint-Germain, however he made the mistake of sharing his thoughts with his good friend Arsène Wenger. The current Arsenal manager had been at lowly Nancy at the time, yet he was soon given access to Monaco's sizeable chequebook and made it his mission to beat Houllier to the draw. As a result, at a lunch given by the principality club for their visitors from the capital a few months before they made their move, a Monaco official stunned PSG President Francis Borelli with a devious outburst. "Hoddle? Are you mad?" he railed. "He's slow. He'd never adapt to French football."
"Borelli was shattered," recalls Houllier, who was persuaded to pick up Ray Wilkins instead, while Monaco used new signing Mark Hateley to help them entice their man. Not that Hoddle probably needed too much convincing, as Monaco's tax-free status allowed the club to make their latest acquisition a millionaire, but the combination of sun, sea and generous helpings of cash led many to accuse the 'king of White Hart Lane' of opting for the easy life.
A chance to dispel that notion was not long in coming, and in February 1988 Hoddle returned to north London with his new teammates to take on the club he had just left. The match had been arranged as part of the original transfer and Monaco blew the hosts away in a 4-0 victory thanks in part to two goals from Hateley.
By that time, Hoddle was already the darling of the Stade Louis II, which was now attracting capacity crowds for the first time in years, and he inspired the side to the title in his very first season, playing in a floating role behind lone striker Hateley. "Monaco was tailor-made for Glenn," commented his fellow countryman, who profited from more than a few visionary Hoddle flicks and passes during his time on the Côte d'Azur. "He always gave the impression that he could play with a cigar in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other. It was style all the way."
Indeed, the player who complained he was never understood by successive England managers was now the toast of royalty, with Prince Rainier the first among his fans. And the following season he shone with his goalscoring too, netting 18 times in the League as Wenger's charges finished third. He also steered the club to the quarter-finals of the European Cup and the final of the Coupe de France, where they were overpowered by a Jean-Pierre Papin hat-trick in a thrilling 4-3 loss.
Meanwhile, his contributions off the pitch were just as telling, as raw, young striker George Weah found out soon after arriving: "He was like a big brother to me in France, a father-figure. He made me welcome and the confidence he gave me was absolutely crucial. Glenn would teach me not to let things get me down. My first game for Monaco was a disaster and I was very low. Glenn told me to forget about it and to look forward. As a player he was brilliant, but he was the same away from the game."
"For us Glenn was 'le bon dieu' – a god," remembers the team's goalkeeper and captain Jean-Luc Ettori. "There's nothing else to say." Unfortunately, there was very little else to come either, as he picked up a serious knee injury during a friendly in August 1989 and eventually gave up his fight back to fitness in December 1990.
He was 33 at the time, but it was a cruelly premature end to his reign on the south coast nonetheless, and many in France believe he should have travelled abroad before he did. "If Glenn had left England earlier, I'm convinced he would have had a career like Platini," says his former teammate and current Lille Coach Claude Puel. Platini himself goes even further, suggesting that if Hoddle had been born French, "he would have won 150 caps," as opposed to the 53 with which he ultimately had to make do.
Hoddle's talents were not entirely lost to the game, however, and in 1991 he was reincarnated as a player-manager with Swindon – a development he attributes to Wenger's influence. "I wouldn't be in management if Arsène hadn't pulled me aside during training and told me 'you'll make a manager'," he remembers. "Up until going abroad, I had no interest in staying in the game after I finished playing, but he changed my thinking by showing me a different set up, a different approach."
The former dandy of the Stade Louis II would go on to build a new reputation for introducing a continental style to the England national team in the mid-1990s, but he proved France remains in his thoughts by making what many saw as an outrageous bid to become Coach of Les Bleus in 2004. Ironically perhaps, the French Federation rejected his candidature on the grounds that they were unable to meet his financial demands and, try as one might, it would be hard to find a more fitting example of how absolutely football money has crossed the Channel since the absurdly-gifted Monaco millionaire dropped jaws in his heyday.
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