Emmanuel Petit Arsenal antics, Chelsea transfer controversy and why he left London 'for a woman'
Emmanuel Petit is the special guest on Monday Night Football as Chelsea welcome Wolves to Stamford Bridge.
Petit, 54, last played for the Blues before retiring two decades ago but is best remembered for being part of the first Arsenal team that won the double under Arsene Wenger in 1998. Months later, the midfielder won the World Cup with France, scoring in the final against Brazil.
That same side won the European Championship two years later, but Petit left north London alongside Marc Overmars for Barcelona that summer. However, Petit now openly admits to regretting the reasoning behind that move.
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"The main reason I decided to leave was my wife," Petit, who married French actress Agathe de La Fontaine that year, previously told FourFourTwo . "Sure, there were sporting reasons – I wanted to win the Champions League – but my wife was tired of the rain and wanted to live in the sun, so I listened to her.
"If I have any advice for players now, it's: 'Don't let your wife decide where you go'." However, he did not follow that same guidance mere months later.
After being approached by the Gunners and Manchester United before choosing Chelsea, Petit again blames La Fontaine for that decision. "I should have gone to Manchester United, because Sir Alex Ferguson called me twice," Petit said in the same interview.
"We had a very good conversation, and it was tempting, but once again, I listened to my wife. She wanted to go back to London – she didn't want to live in Manchester – so I made the same mistake twice in one year."
Petit and La Fontaine divorced the year after their return to England in 2002 when their daughter Zoe was born. She is now a model like her mother but became estranged from Petit as a child.
Zoe even began a lawsuit against her father in 2019, alleging defamation and manipulation. Petit is now married to model and fashion photographer Maria Servello-Petit, with whom he has another daughter, Violet.
Petit proved a controversial character during his playing career, too. While at Arsenal, he claimed to the Mirror that players use drugs to deal with the even then ever-increasing number of matches.
Around a decade ago, Petit also suggested Thierry Henry would receive greater appreciation from the French media "if we had been invaded by the Germans". He later apologised for that comment about his former club and country team-mate.
Petit also previously admitted to "always being in trouble with women" during an interview with Paddy Power's Pitch Invader magazine. Recalling the craziest moment from his career, he claimed: "I was outside a restaurant one evening waiting for a cab, when all of a sudden a couple approached me, and the man gave me an indecent proposal.
"He wanted me to do things with his wife in front of him. "I said, 'Listen, I'm not that starving', thanked him for the offer and declined."
