THE BOY WHO COULD FLY

07 | media day

"Best friend at Arsenal?" Stuart asked and Olivier thought between his three.

"Martin- or Aaron... actually, maybe Declan, no, B- er, I don't know?" Olivier asked and Stuart tried not to laugh.

"How do you pronounce your full name?"

"O-li-bhiere, me-lawn, daques-airhd, ehm-il, ayhl-ah-ree, za-li-bva, junior." Olivier said slowly and Stuart was impressed as they continued to walk through London Colney.

"What would you be if you weren't a footballer?"

"A student, but probably a professor." Olivier chuckled and shook his head, thinking of the life he could've led.

"Who is your biggest inspiration?"

"My brother." Olivier smiled.

"Who is your biggest football inspiration?" Stuart clarified and Olivier realized he misunderstood.

"Oh, Olivier Giroud."

"How many languages do you speak?" Stuart asked.

"Fourteen." Olivier answered an Stuart was taken aback, he moved his hand, signaling for Olivier to elaborate.

"French, English, Italian, Swedish, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Norwegian, Arabic, Occitan, Catalun, Japanese, and Dutch."

"How would your teammates describe you?"

"Annoying." He said honestly, but nobody really thought he was.

"Biggest pet peeve?" Stuart asked.

"Disorganized people. I'm talking about you, Aaron!" Olivier said to the camera.

"Where was your debut?"

"PSG U10 academy when I was three." Olivier answered, he had actually not played on a team with people his age yet.

"Where was your senior debut?"

"PSG, 21-22 when I was almost thirteen." He answered, this was kind of fun.

"What do you hope to achieve at Arsenal?"

"Helping the team break records." Olivier answered easily. That was always his goal. He'd done it last season, and was ready for round two.

"Do you like France or England better?" Stuart asked.

"No comment." Olivier replied, trying not to upset anyone. Stuart cracked a smile and stopped the cameras.

"Well that's about it, thanks a lot. It'll air later today if you'd like to see it." Stuart told him and he nodded. Training had ended as he went to do this and it was mostly uneventful until he had a photoshoot before the Tuesday match.

Instantly after training, he had to run to catch the tube to the premier league photo shoot. Three other players were to be there, none of them he was told. When he stepped in, a man instantly walked up to him and began talking very quickly.

"Mr. Saliba. Hello, we haven't started yet but thank you for showing up early. Nobody else is here but you must wait in the setup room." He said and it took a minute for Olivier to comprehend.

"My name is Craig, by the way." He clarified as if it would help and Olivier just nodded and let Craig lead him to the 'setup room'.

"Thank you." Olivier said when Craig left him to go wait for the others. There were cameras and people everyone, two filming the whole thing and a bunch ready for pictures.

When Olivier saw Erling Haaland and Mo Salah show up, he realized how big of a deal this was. But then he remembered he was invited.

"Nice to meet you both." Olivier told them and shook hands with the two much older men. Of course he had met them on the pitch, but never person to person.