From Arsenal trauma to World Cup hero: Nicolas Pépé's comeback nobody saw coming
Scorer of both goals against Curaçao, Pépé told L'Equipe he once considered quitting football altogether after a traumatic spell at Arsenal.
Everything was set up to go wrong. And for a long time, it did.
Nicolas Pépé arrived at Arsenal in 2019 as the club's most expensive signing in history — €80 million. He left four years later without leaving much of a mark: just 27 goals in 112 appearances. But the number wasn't the most painful part. It was what he carried inside.
"At Arsenal, I suffered a kind of trauma, as if my passion had been torn away from me; I felt a repulsion towards football," the forward told French newspaper L'Equipe in July 2024. He began to question the very point of his career. "I doubted myself to the point of considering giving it all up," he said.
The weight of his price tag took its toll. "I didn't ask them to spend €80 million on me," Pépé recalled. "At that price, people don't care where you come from — they want you to deliver results immediately."
The rebuild came gradually — first at Trabzonspor in Turkey, then at Villarreal in Spain, where he rediscovered his love for the game and signed a contract extension through 2028.
His path with the Ivory Coast national team wasn't straightforward either. A provocative comment about Morocco's Africa Cup of Nations record stirred controversy, and Pépé was left out of the 2025 edition of the tournament. Head coach Emerse Faé insisted it was not a sporting punishment, and the forward was called up again. He made it to the World Cup — and answered on the pitch.
Against Curaçao, he scored both goals in the victory that sealed the Ivorians' place in the knockout round. Born in France, the right winger who shone at Lille before losing his way in London has finally found his stage.
Ivory Coast now face the runner-up of Group I — which will be either France or Norway — next Tuesday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Golmetria model gives France a 12% chance of lifting the title, making a stumble in the knockout rounds a very real possibility.
Pépé vs. France. The country where he was born, in the country that took him in. Could the script be any better?