Scout Gile Grimandy (53), who was in charge of recruiting Arsenal’s French player for a long time, reflected on the failure to recruit Kylian Mbappe (25, PSG).
Grimandy has long been linked with Arsenal manager Arsen Wenger. Grimandy was a defender who joined the club in 1997-1998 in his first year as Arsenal head coach during the 1996-1997 season. He played for Arsenal until 2002 and won the Premier League and the FA Cup before retiring from active duty. 스포츠토토
Since then, Grimandy has made a fresh start as a scout. His duty was to recruit players from France. He worked as a head scout and left the team during the 2018 team reshuffle.
When he was scouting for Arsenal, Mbappe was on his radar. It was 2016. He was an AS Monaco youth.
“We met Mbappe’s parents who came to the training ground from London and went with Wenger to meet Kylian in the south of France,” Grimandy recalled, according to the British Daily Star.
“We tried to persuade him, but I don’t think it was the best timing at the time. The meeting came after the defeat at Old Trafford (against Manchester United), and I remember having a big game against Tottenham just three days later. So the timing was not ideal,” he said.
In the end, Mbappe’s trip to Arsenal did not happen. “Mbappe turned down our project and signed a new contract with Monaco. It was the most disappointing thing in my 15 years as an Arsenal scout,” Grimandy said.
Mbappe, who debuted in Monaco as an AS Monaco youth, displayed fast feet and brilliant techniques, drawing keen attention from the soccer team. Mbappe made his name known at the 2016-17 UEFA Champions League. Mbappe has been active as a key player of Monaco, advancing his team to the UCL semifinals. It was his first advance to the UCL semifinals in 13 years.
Since then, he has drawn attention from many teams and joined PSG in the summer of 2017. Mbappe led PSG to its league title last season by scoring 29 goals in France’s Ligue 1 league. He has scored 18 goals in 17 games this season. His contract with PSG will end next summer.