Australia striker Jason Cummings says Olivier Giroud pretended he could not speak English to avoid swapping shirts with him at the World Cup.
France beat the Socceroos in the group stage in Qatar, although both nations managed to qualify for the knockout stages – Australia losing in the last 16 to Argentina and the French beatn on penalties by the same team in the final.
Cummings was keen to bring souvenirs back with him from Qatar and had in mind Kylian Mbappe’s shirt as his chief target.
The Edinburgh-born forward, who played twice for Scotland before switching allegiance to Australia, told the tale of how Mbappe turned him down and then Giroud did the same but in outrageous fashion.
‘After the France game, I actually tried to get Mbappe – forget Giroud, I went for the top boy Mbappe – and he told me to meet him in the change rooms,’ he said on Channel 10 show The Project on Tuesday night.
‘So I went to the changing room and the kit man was there and I gave him my top and 10 minutes later he came out with my jersey and says: “Nah, absolutely not, (Mbappe) doesn’t want to swap”.’
‘So when I was walking back to my change room and I’ve seen Giroud and I’m walking, as handsome as ever, and I asked him, “Giroud, please man, can I get your shirt, man? I’m a big fan, can I get your shirt?”,’ he recalled.
‘And he just walked past me, pretended he never spoke English! And he’s been in the Premier League for 10 years! He just walked right past me!’
Cummings has already returned to domestic action with Central Coast Mariners, starting as they beat Sydney FC on Saturday.
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