Having been a graduate of the French Clairefontaine academy, Louis Saha was perhaps destined for the top, but his injury hit career might have hindered him reaching his full potential.
Growing up on an estate on the edge of Paris, Louis was taken in as a boarder at Clairefontaine and he did well enough to earn a deal with Metz, making his debut in 1998.
Signed by Ruud Gullitt at Newcastle United on a loan deal in the January 1999 transfer window, Saha made an immediate impact with his pace and clinical goal-scoring that helped his team to the 1999 FA Cup final, but he was omitted from the squad for the final altogether by Gullitt. This attracted Fulham's attention and he signed for them in the summer of 2001 and his goals fired them to promotion to the Premier League.
This in turn brought him to the notice of Manchester United, who bought him for about £12.8 million in January 2004. He scored frequently, despite missing a lot of games with injuries and he won a number of trophies in his four and a half years at Old Trafford.
Everton snapped him up in the summer of 2008 for an undisclosed fee, but Saha was not match fit and offered to forego his wages until he was fit to play. This impressed the fans and he became a popular player at Goodison Park, with his goals helping the side to challenge for European places and domestic trophies with a low cost squad. he helped them to the 2009 FA Cup Final, where he scored the fastest FA Cup final goal ever after 25 seconds, but the team eventually lost out. An ankle injury in March 2011 ended his season and in the following campaign, he featured erratically and towards the end of 2011 went 942 minutes without a goal for the club.
His arrival at White Hart Lane in January 2012 on a free six month deal was a real surprise. His time at Everton had ended in him not playing a lot and with Spurs pushing up from their fourth place in the table, it was a questionable move by the club. He did well initially, scoring twice in his second game, against his old club Newcastle, but he was then side-lined for a few games here and there with niggling injuries, especially when he was needed to get the goals during the slump the team had in March and April.
A French international, Louis scored the winning goal in the European Under-19 Championships against Portugal and went on to play in the 2004 European Championships (missing the final through suspension) and the 2006 World Cup.
In 2012, published a book in the UK entitled "Thinking Inside The Box".
At the end of the 2011-12
season, Tottenham released Saha, as they did not take up
the option of a contract extension and he signed up with
Sunderland on a free transfer, but a peripheral figure,
he was released in January 2013.