Personally, I think football is about a couple of different things: being excited to watch your team and also the moments that are created while doing that. Over the years at West Ham, there are few players who created more moments than Dimitri Payet did.
The 38-year-old announced his retirement from football on Sunday, meaning an end to a remarkably impressive career. The Frenchman has become a legend in his homeland, as he remains the only player to register over 100 goals and 100 assists in Ligue 1.
To add to that, he created the most chances in Europe’s top five leagues between 2006 and 2023, fashioning openings for his teammates on 1350 different occasions. Lionel Messi was second with 1,248.
However, it is not ridiculous to say that the 38-time France international is most known for his 18-month spell with West Ham.
Payet joined Slaven Bilic’s side for £10.7m in June 2015, as the Hammers looked to embark on a historic final season at the Boleyn Ground. A historic final season it was, and the Reunion-born attacking midfielder was the star that shone brightest for the Hammers.
For the first game of the Premier League season, no one believed West Ham, who had already been knocked out of the Europa League qualifying stage, stood a chance against one of the title favourites, Arsenal. However, a 2-0 victory through a Cheikhou Kouyate header and a Mauro Zarate strike from a distance was a sign of things to come.
Payet, despite not being on the scoresheet, was the best player on the pitch, outshining the likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. The Frenchman showed off his creative prowess through a beautiful free-kick for Kouyate’s opener while also elegantly proving how difficult he was to stop when dribbling with the ball.
Laurent Koscielny and Aaron Ramsey were some of the first victims of Payet’s mesmerising skill on the ball in the Premier League, as the pair were bamboozled after West Ham’s new signing skipped past them.
It did not take the league long to realise that Payet was the real deal, as the Reunion-born creator had tallied eight goal contributions in his first nine Premier League games. In that time, the midfielder dazzled Upton Park with beautiful strikes against Leicester and Newcastle.
He also inspired the Hammers to iconic away wins at Anfield and the Etihad, two grounds West Ham have not won at since. His early-season performances had instantly earned him hero status in East London. In fact, the Frenchman was adored so much the Hammers fans had labelled him as ‘better than Zidane’.
Despite Payet’s brilliant start to life in England, it is important to recognise that his first season for West Ham was not straightforward. On 7 November, when Bilic’s side was sat sixth in the table, a reckless James McCarthy challenge ensured that Payet would be injured for two months with a severe ligament tear in his ankle.
While the Frenchman was sidelined, West Ham would go on an eight-game winless streak and slump to 10th in the table. The Hammers would also go on a five-game drawing streak, where they lacked the creativity required for a side fighting for Europe.
Come the end of the season, West Ham finished seventh with 62 points, only four points off Manchester City in fourth. Consequently, it is not ridiculous to say the Irons would have finished in a Champions League position if it was not for McCarthy’s challenge. That perfectly exemplifies how Payet was one of Europe’s most influential players that season, which he carried on proving as the season progressed.
Payet’s first start after injury was a 3-1 away win at Bournemouth, where he scored one brilliant free-kick while also exquisitely assisting Enner Valencia. The French international received man of the match, truly signalling that his form would continue.
The following month, against Liverpool in an FA Cup fourth round replay, the 2016 Hammer of the Year’s last-gasp free-kick was perfectly delivered for Angelo Ogbonna to head into the far corner, meaning West Ham would advance, creating absolute bedlam behind the goal in the Bobby Moore Stand. Payet would proceed to perform absolutely remarkably in the FA Cup, leading Hammers fans to believe that they would lift the trophy for the first time in 36 years.
The French international delivered one of the all-time great West Ham performances against Blackburn in the fifth round: A picture-perfect free-kick that would rifle into the far corner, a delicious assist for Emmanuel Emenike to score West Ham’s fourth and a truly incredible solo goal where the magician would breeze past Blackburn’s defence with a level of arrogance only few could back up before brushing the ball into the corner from 20 yards. West Ham won 5-1, and Payet had proved he was one of the world’s best.
In the following round of the tournament, there was another moment of brilliance by the then 28-year-old. At Old Trafford, with 20 minutes to play, Payet curled a 30-yard free-kick perfectly into the top corner, beating one of the best goalkeepers in the world, David De Gea. It was an utterly sumptuous strike that caused 9000 fans in the Manchester United away end to experience mayhem never seen before.
Despite West Ham eventually getting knocked out in the quarter-final, largely due to a controversial decision to allow Anthony Martial’s equaliser at Old Trafford, Payet’s extraordinary footballing ability gave thousands of West Ham fans a moment they will never forget. When that free-kick went in, we thought we would lift the FA Cup, and that belief is what football is truly about.
Incredibly, despite the free-kick at Old Trafford being so good, the most famous Payet set-piece in a West Ham shirt came a month later, when West Ham welcomed Crystal Palace to the Boleyn Ground.
After conceding a free-kick on the edge of their box, Palace lined up a seven-man wall, preventing Payet from shooting the keeper’s side. However, Payet was a player who did not care about what his opponents did: his free-kick defied logic; it defied gravity. The ball sailed into the top corner with snow on it, leaving Wayne Hennessey completely baffled as West Ham’s superstar had just scored a goal that seemed impossible.
The goal became one of the most famous free kicks in Premier League history and is still spoken about to this day. When West Ham fans reminisce about Payet, one of the first moments they think of was that incredible free-kick. It was an effort of arrogance and world-class ability - something no one else would have tried. But that is why Payet’s stint in England is so iconic and so memorable for West Ham fans. The Frenchman delivered magical moments time and time again for the Hammers.
In addition to the free kicks, the £10.7m man would perform admirably in the final stages of the season as West Ham secured a top seven position, ensuring European football for the following year. Notably, Payet was brilliant in West Ham’s 3-2 victory over Manchester United, the final game at the Boleyn Ground. The Frenchman was the player who dragged the side forward when they were 2-1 down, eventually getting two assists for Michail Antonio and Winston Reid, respectively.
Payet was magnificent in the 2015/16 season, cementing himself in Hammers folklore as he scored 12 goals and assisted 15 times, but he also became a national hero when Euro 2016 came along. Under Didier Deschamps, the midfielder would score three goals and assist his teammates twice in the competition, meaning a place in UEFA’s Team of the Tournament as France made it to the final.
The Frenchman’s brilliant tournament paired with his brilliant Premier League season meant that he would be nominated for the 2016 Ballon d'Or. For West Ham fans, seeing one of their own nominated for a prize like that was something they were not used to seeing, but something they certainly treasured.
In his final season, Payet was not quite at his brilliant best but still dazzled with some magnificent moments. In the first year at the London Stadium, Hammers fans were gifted with skill that has never been matched in Stratford. Payet’s extraordinary solo goal versus Middlesbrough and his rabona assist for Michail Antonio were both moments that will forever be spoken about when fans cast their minds back to the first year at the London Stadium.
Before leaving in January, Payet also scored two more brilliant free kicks, cementing himself as one of the best ever set-piece takers in England. Despite it unfortunately being fairly obvious he wanted out of the club, the Frenchman’s ability to save the Hammers continued as he scored a last-minute free-kick to avoid going to penalties against Accrington Stanley in the EFL Cup.
Payet’s final goal for West Ham perfectly illustrated the brilliance of his 18-month spell in England: a curling free-kick against Liverpool at Anfield creating serious mayhem in the away end.
Sadly, the way Payet’s West Ham career ended was a true shame. There have been many rumours about the true reasons behind his departure and why Bilic was forced to partake in that incredibly solemn press conference. However, maybe it will be better for us to never know and solely remember the positive times.
The Frenchman gave West Ham fans not only hundreds of memories, but also the opportunity to watch a world-class player week in, week out. Over nine years since Payet’s departure, the Hammers are yet to find a player near his technical excellence, but that is okay, because what Dimitri Payet did in claret and blue will never be forgotten.
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