During his recent pundit work for BeIN Sports, someone revealed he was close to signing Kylian Mbappe from AS Monaco for free in 2017.
Back when he still played for AS Monaco, Kylian Mbappe was already one of the most coveted players in Europe. In fact, his ascension to stardom was just as fast as his talent allowed him. The whole world started taking notice of this young phenom from the moment he stepped on the pitch to show his skills. Clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid, and PSG were already keeping tabs on him. But a former manager wanted to remind people he was also trying to sign him for his club back in the day.
Although he always says the same about any footballer who becomes great, Arsene Wenger makes a case for this player. You see, the former Arsenal manager keeps close ties with AS Monaco due to his past there as a manager. He knows that market like nobody else and he probably knew about Kylian since he was a child. We are convinced there was a moment he attempted the player’s transfer but Arsenal wasn’t appealing to him.
Wenger tried to sign him as a youngster.
This is a very common Arsene Wenger practice. He spots a young player from another club’s academy and goes after him with passion. When his scouts traveled to FC Barcelona, he managed to find Cesc Fabregas. In France, he attempted to do the exact same with Kylian Mbappe when he was undecided about his new contract. The French manager even visited the player’s home when he made the decision to stay for a few more years.
It’s evident Wenger tried to persuade him to play at Arsenal but he couldn’t convince him: “We can talk about Mbappe, I was at his home when he was undecided whether to extend his contract with Monaco,” Wenger told beIN Sports. “He could have come to Arsenal for free. I would say every club is full of histories like that. You go to Milan, to Manchester, Arsenal, Chelsea there are these kinds of stories everywhere.”
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