Jérémy Ménez has left AC Milan. Let’s reminisce about his greatest goal.

The first goal was from a penalty that he won with sheer pace. Jérémy Ménez ran onto a through ball and Alessandro Lucarelli, too slow to react and even slower in pursuit, had no choice but to pull down the Frenchman. Ménez cannoned the resultant spot kick down the middle and ran off to his trademarked cupped-right-ear celebration.

His second was ... not something one should discuss in public spaces. It was too lewd, too sensual, some would suggested that it was even liable for corrupting the youth. The type of thing that would have those of a conservative disposition up in arms. In a younger world, books that depicted and spoke of it would have been banned and subsequently burned in public demonstrations.

It came from a mistake, one of the many that occurred in the game. Ménez was pressuring Lucarelli and Stefan Ristovski on the left side of the box, as all three sprinted towards goal. It seemed a standard lost cause. Ristovski would pass it back to Antonio Mirante and then the keeper would send the ball back forward and restart play.

But Ristovski’s pass back to Mirante was short and Ménez pounced on it. Mirante came out to the corner of the 6-yard box, and Ménez tapped the ball across him and the goal. The French forward then ran around the keeper to get to the ball that was running towards the far corner. The keeper recovered, as did two defenders, and with Ménez running away from goal, the logical conclusion of the play was a probable pass to a teammate or for Ménez to dribble out of the box and restart the attack.

He didn’t do any of those.

What this man did was run around the keeper -- so far deep that he was beyond the goal -- and then come back in front of it, chase the ball down and heel-flick it into the net with the keeper and two defenders closing in on him. The genius of it was so casual and predetermined that he barely even turned his neck to see if it went in before running off screaming to celebrate with Pippo Inzaghi.

It was a game that was representative of and meant for Jérémy Ménez. He never had a better performance for Milan.

Ménez is not a perfect player, nor is he close to being the type of player that stands as a role model. But like the game, he is unapologetically himself, even when it is sometimes to his detriment.

He is very selfish. In the early moments of the game, he dribbled towards the left corner flag surrounded by two defenders and didn’t pass the ball to a teammate until a third defender arrived. He’s very direct and opinionated. After leaving PSG, he declared that he was left out of the team because PSG prefers foreigners to French players. He also added that he was disliked because he doesn’t fake his passion like other players on social media. That he is not fake.

And he shows his unhappiness very openly. His relationship with Laurent Blanc in the national team soured after he came out against Spain in the quarterfinals of Euro 2012 in slippers and headphones to inspect the field before the game, slouched on the bench during it and then verbally abused his captain, Hugo Lloris, and the referee after he was subbed on. He doesn’t have too many friends, especially not in soccer -- only Karim Benzema -- and he doesn’t pretend to like anyone that he doesn’t.

His face even looks constantly annoyed, as if everything is beneath him.

He plays the same way as well. He passes the ball when all other options are exhausted, to his teammates who are clearly not as talented. He breezes past defenders who are too slow to keep up and too clumsy to take the ball from him. And he scores magical goals. He also scores normal ones too, but only because he knows the value in them.

Ménez is a stereotypical flawed genius. A rough past, divisive, petulant and unashamed attitude, an honest heart and a career that is book ended by the question of what might have been had he been able to stay out of his own way. He turned down Manchester United at an early age, left Sochaux on bad terms, fought with manager Vincenzo Montella at Roma (who is now the Milan manager) before leaving and did the same with Blanc at PSG.

Milan made him happy. The free transfer gave him a chance to remind the world of his ability when he had been forgotten at PSG. It was also a great move for Milan, who could no longer attract the big superstars but could still convince the unsettled second-tiers to play for them with the romance that comes from wearing the red and black. Both parties needed each other.

Ménez embraced the challenge even if Milan did not. In that 2014-2015 season, he scored 16 goals with four assists in 34 games. And when he didn’t score or assist, he caused so much danger that it was very clear who the best player on the team was. He carried the team to a flattering 10th-place finish.

That was what made it so fun to watch him. Milan were no longer the Milan of old, but he made it feel like such. He played like it was 1999. And like the games and players from that age, he is full of faults, but here you have a player so honest about himself, that he gave you everything that he had if he was happy and nothing if he wasn’t. There was no pretense, no suggestion of anything less or more. He’s either with you all the way or he has no time for you and made it known instantly.

That catastrophic game against Parma epitomized all of that. He ran the whole 90 minutes, wreaking havoc on scared defenders, constantly dragging Milan forward when the team wanted nothing more than to crumble and sacrificing his body for the pipe dream of a European berth. And he topped it off with one of the best goals to ever be scored on a soccer pitch. All because the team made him happy.

The next year, he barely played due to a bad back and the team moved on from him. Milan improved slightly, hiring and firing a multitude of managers before settling on Montella in the summer. And in typical Ménez fashion, he decided that it was time to join Bordeaux rather than pretend to get along with Montella.

It’s always all or nothing for him.