You can read so many bad things on social media, even about the best players in the world. It can’t be of help to you and your mental health

OLIVIER GIROUD reached the top of the football world this summer.

He has also lifted four FA Cups, a French league title and scored more than 200 goals for club and country, leaving winning the Premier League as Giroud’s “last dream”.

And the biggest attribute the World Cup winner and Chelsea striker has needed to achieve all he has in his career so far?

“For me, mental strength is at least 70-80 per cent of a sportsman’s quality,” Giroud insisted. “If you don’t have it, you cannot be successful.”

Giroud’s views made him an ideal Blues star to support the Chelsea Foundation’s ‘Chelsea Champions’ initiative at Stamford Bridge this week, which focused on mental health and the pressures of social media.

Giroud, an infrequent social media user, said: ”You can read so many bad things, even about the best players of the world.

“I always thought it was very frustrating. It cannot help you and your mental health.”

Giroud, 32, hasn’t needed to be glued to the likes of Twitter and Facebook to have his resilience tested and prove, in response, that he has plenty of it.

The forward described being painted as the bad guy when Karim Benzema’s blackmail case led to his exclusion from the France set-up ahead of Euro 2016 as the toughest time of his career mentally.

Giroud replaced Benzema (above) as France’s main striker, scored in a pre-tournament friendly against Cameroon, but was booed off when substituted.

“Not because of my contribution on the pitch but because I was there and not Benzema,” he said. “It was very difficult sometimes for me and my family.”

The following day his picture was plastered on the front of newspaper L’equipe, under the cruel headline ‘Le Mal Aime’ (The Unloved).

And his failure to score in Russia this summer left him open to more criticism despite his considerable contribution to France’s triumph (with the

World Cup, right).

“As a striker, it is obviously frustrating,”

Giroud sighed. “But if you asked

Harry Kane if he would give the six goals he scored for the

World Cup, he would say, ‘Oh