Kylian Mbappe is widely considered to be one of the best footballer's on the planet, but in 2015, he wasn't good enough for Manchester United's scouts, according to club legend Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs has revealed United turned down the chance to sign Kylian Mbappe
Ryan Giggs has revealed United turned down the chance to sign Kylian Mbappe
View Image
Manchester United turned down the chance of signing Kylian Mbappe, club legend Ryan Giggs has revealed.
The United great has revealed how a chance encounter with a random stranger led to the Real Madrid and France superstar being recommended to him, during his time on the coaching staff in 2015, back when Mbappe was a relative unknown.
Giggs duly went to watch Mbappe, then with the youth team at Monaco, before recommending that United do the same. However, according to the Welshman, appearing on 'Rio Ferdinand Presents: The Debrief', the club's scouting team decided Mbappe, a World Cup winner and only the second man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, wasn't for them.
Giggs revealed: "So, I’m in the south of France. I've been for a walk in the local village and I'm walking back to the hotel.
"And I can feel someone, you know, when you feel someone like following you. I get to the hotel and then all of a sudden I can feel someone coming up to me.
"This guy is called Lionel. He comes up to me and says, 'hi, I’m Lionel. I just wanted to just say hello. I'm a big United fan and big fan of yours. But I watch a lot of youth football in France, and you have to look at this player. He's called Kylian Mbappé. He's at Monaco and I think he's a player for Manchester United.
"A few weeks later, he emailed me all the details. So me and Albert, he was another assistant at United at the time, I've told him about this thing. We go to a few youth games with Monaco and we've seen him (Mbappe) and we were just like, 'wow, what is this?'
"You can see players and they can be special, but he did look exceptional, obviously.
"We told the (United) scouting team. They went to watch him. Someone in France went to watch him and he was actually playing PSG. Monaco were playing PSG. So they went to Paris to watch him. Anyway, I think a few weeks later, I said to this guy, 'how did it go?'
"He went, 'yeah, they weren't too sure about him, so we just left it'. And that was it."
Mbappe subsequently exploded on the scene at Monaco, before joining Paris Saint-Germain in 2018 for £162m - the second most expensive signing in football history. This summer, he won the Golden Boot at the World Cup and became the all-time leading scorer in the tournament's history.
*The full interview with Ryan Giggs is available on the Rio Ferdinand Presents YouTube channel at 9.00 UK time on Wednesday September 9