Why Chelsea missed a trick by not signing Kylian Mbappe
According to Daily Mail, Chelsea missed a chance to sign French sensation Kylian Mbappe when he was just 13. Mbappe trained with the Blues in 2012 for a week and impressed the scouts with his attacking skills.
However, the club wasn’t convinced of his work rate as a player and asked him to return for a second trial which his mother Fayza Lamari refused (h/t Daily Mail).
Mbappe has set the world alight with some stunning performances over the past year or so. He capped it off with a brilliant goal in the final of the FIFA World Cup as France beat Croatia 4-2. He has already scored 9 goals for Les Bleus in 24 competitive appearances and is currently one of the most expensive footballers in the world. After all, Paris Saint-Germain splashed a colossal €180million to sign him from AS Monaco.
Taking into account the present scenario, it is easy to say that Chelsea committed a huge blunder by not signing Mbappe. The scouts found the player exciting but quite rightly, they wanted to have another look and urged him to work harder on his defensive abilities (h/t Daily Mail).
However, before blaming Chelsea, the picture back then should also be taken into consideration. Apart from boasting of appreciable depth in the senior squad, Chelsea had a whole lot of promising players in their academy as well. The likes of Tammy Abraham, Eddie Nketiah, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Izzy Brown and a lot of other talented youngsters were in the junior ranks.
Even if Chelsea accepted Mbappe back then, the FIFA rules pertaining to signing minors would have prevented them from making a move. However, Chelsea should have tried harder to persuade his mother to move to London which could have allowed the club to sign him.
At present, it is easy to suggest that Chelsea did miss a trick by not signing Mbappe. Eden Hazard has been Chelsea’s standout performer over the past few seasons but he has been subjected to interest from Real Madrid (h/t Daily Express) for the longest time.
Although Chelsea have managed to retain their talisman, for the time being, there is a strong possibility that the Blues might eventually be forced to sell him. If that does happen, Chelsea might just look back and regret missing out on signing Mbappe in his earlier days.
