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Express 5mos ago
What stopped Kylian Mbappe signing for Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea
Source:Express

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Speaking on the recently-released BBC documentary, Mbappe, French football journalist Julien Laurens explained: "Clubs from all over Europe would [tell Mbappe] 'come to us'. [But] it was never about the prestige of the club, because he could have gone to Real Madrid, to Chelsea, to Arsenal, to Manchester United. It was always about good academy, good coaches, and in the end, chose Monaco."

Legendary Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said: "You know at one point I tried to convince him to come to Arsenal. I was at his home with his parents. He was a happy boy. He just wanted to play football and had the passion for the game."

It wasn't just Wenger who made a big push to sign Mbappe. In 2012, the goalscorer was invited to London to do a week's trial in Chelsea's academy. The Blues were eager to sign, but wanted him to stick around for another week before offering him a deal, at which point Mbappe's mother allegedly offered the club an ultimatum: sign my boy now or we're going back to France. Chelsea opted for the latter.

Similarly, a sizeable charm offensive was launched by Zinedine Zidane, who was sporting director of Real Madrid at the time. But the Mbappes chose Monaco instead. After joining the principality side in 2013, Mbappe quickly rose through the ranks and made his debut for the club's reserve team, Monaco II, in 2015.

A few months later, he made his bow for the senior team aged just 16, becoming Monaco's youngest-ever player in the process, breaking the record Thierry Henry had set 21 years earlier.

The capital club initially signed him on loan, but the deal included a mandatory PS154million purchace option, which was activated the following summer. As such, Mbappe became the most expensive teenager of all time, and the second-most expensive footballer of all time behind Neymar, who joined PSG for PS198m a few weeks earlier.

In the years since, the 25-year-old has smashed a staggering 256 goals in 307 games, becoming not only the highest goalscorer in PSG history, but also the highest goalscorer in Ligue 1 history this side of the Millennium.