PLAYER PROFILE

Louis Saha

Position: Forward

Height: 6'1

Weight: 11st 11lbs

Date of Birth: 1978-08-08 Paris, France

Louis Saha

Manchester United completed the signing of Fulham striker Louis Saha, for a figure of £12.825million on January 23rd 2004. United had previously agreed a deal in principle with Fulham for the French striker, but the transfer was not sewn up until five days later.

'Little Louis' was Jean Tigana's first signing after he joined Fulham. Tigana described Saha as "the new Thierry Henry" and the young Frenchman had lighting pace and a real eye for the openings in and around the opposition box.

His return to the Premiership with Fulham (having spent a period on loan at Newcastle in 1999) saw him score twice away to Manchester United, though it was not enough to prevent a 3-2 defeat for the Cottagers. He found the net again in the next game, a 2-0 win over Sunderland.

However, he soon found goals more difficult to come by, as Fulham started to struggle in the top flight. By the end of the season he had only scored six more goals, though the burden had been lifted by the arrival of Steve Marlet.

In 2002/03 Saha failed to fulfill his total potential netting a meagre 7 goals in 28 appearances. The following season was a huge one for him, as he found the consistency he had lacked previously, scoring fifteen goals for the Cottagers and attracting interest from United following another virtuoso performance against them at Old Trafford.

When Manchester United made their move for him in the transfer window, they were initially rebuffed by an angry Chris Coleman and an indignant Mohammed al Fayed, who accused Sir Alex Ferguson of 'bullying' tactics. However, when the offer rose to the required amount, Fulham could not turn it down and Saha's dream was fulfilled.

Injuries made his first few months at Old Trafford a little frustrating for Saha, but when he did play it was clear that he was far from out of his depth, scoring 7 goals in 14 appearances. He also made his France debut, making an immediate impact by scoring against Belgium.

He earned a place in their Euro 2004 squad, but was only used as a substitute as the French crashed out in the quarter-finals. With the signing of Wayne Rooney, Saha found it difficult to break into a regular place in the United frontline in the 2004/05 season. This situation was not made any easier by repeated injuries (especially to his knee) which, although not anything too major, stopped him from creating any consistency.

He made only 22 starts (11 from the subs bench) scoring just twice, but was rather more fortunate in the 2005/06 season, seemingly finally shaking off his injuries and playing - and scoring more regularly, including getting a goal in the Carling Cup final win over Wigan. He even replaced Ruud van Nistelrooy as Rooney's first choice partner, scoring 15 times in 30 appearances.

Saha was a bit-part player in France's World Cup squad in the summer of 2006, making three substitute appearances and failing to score as his team lost on penalties to Italy in the final.

With Ruud van Nistelrooy leaving Old Trafford to move to Real Madrid, Saha quickly took his chance to claim a regular starting place at Manchester United with an excellent first half of the season in 2006/07. His pace, movement and skills helped United charge towards the title, but his old injury curse returned after Christmas and ruled him out of most of the run-in.