World Cup winner’s St James’ Park and Alan Shearer claim that Newcastle United fans will love

In a star-studded career, Desailly represented Marseille, AC Milan and Chelsea among others as he lifted two Champions League titles as well as helping France to their 1998 World Cup triumph on home turf. In a career that spanned almost two decades across Europe, it’s fair to say that Desailly has played at some of the world’s most iconic venues and with some of the biggest names in the game.

However, when asked which Premier League stadium he loved playing in and which player he hated coming up against during his time at Chelsea, Desially responded with two answers that Newcastle United will love.

Firstly, in a TikTok video posted by the Premier League, Desailly was asked by Manish Basin what was the best Premier League stadium he played in, the 55-year-old responded: “St James’ Park. Yes, I like the stadium, Newcastle. Yes. Quite scary at the time, at the time they were having a good crowd, good fans all the time. Yeah, St James’ Park.”

That was followed up by a question on who was the toughest striker to face and, unsurprisingly, Desailly chose the league’s all-time record goalscorer: “I hated playing against Alan Shearer, yes! English best goalscorer? He’s lucky Harry Kane left!”

One of Shearer’s most memorable - and underrated - goals at St James’ Park saw him shove off the interests of Desailly to smash home an effort into the top corner from the edge of the box.