Kylian Mbappé, the star of PSG, was not far from signing up with the English club Arsenal.
Former Arsenal recruiter Gilles Grimandi has recalled how he came very close to signing PSG star Kylian Mbappé.
Mbappé could have gone the English way
Grimandi admits to having spoken with Mbappe when the latter was still at AS Monaco. In an interview with Ladbrokes Fanzone, he revealed: “We tried to convince him in the past. We met his parents in London, who came to the training center, and with Arsène (Wenger) and Richard Law we went to the south of France to see him.”
So why didn’t the Bondynois join the Gunners? Grimandi believes that the timing was not right. “We tried to convince him, but I don’t think it was the best moment for us. This game took place the day after a home defeat to Swansea in the league, which itself followed a defeat at Old Trafford and I remember we had a big away game three days later against Tottenham, so the timing was not ideal”. It was in March 2016, a few months before Mbappé exploded in front of the entire planet.
However, the former Gunner judges that very little came down to it. “We tried, and I really don’t think we were far from getting him, but he declined the project and signed a new contract with Monaco,” Grimandi concluded.
