Manchester United decided not to sign Kylian Mbappe before he became a global superstar.
Manchester United turned down the chance to sign a teenage Kylian Mbappe
Manchester United turned down the chance to sign a teenage Kylian Mbappe (Image: Getty)
Things could have been very different for Manchester United if they had signed Kylian Mbappe when he was a young prospect at Monaco. The forward has emerged as one of the world's best players and is arguably the biggest star of football's current generation. He began his career at Monaco before earning a big-money move to PSG, where he established himself as a world-class operator.
Now at Real Madrid, the prolific Frenchman could have gone down an entirely different path if he had joined United back in 2015. Ryan Giggs previously revealed that the Red Devils turned down the opportunity to sign Mbappe when he was a teenager at Monaco. Amazingly, the Welshman claimed that United's scouting team decided he wasn't good enough after watching him in action.
Instead of signing Mbappe for a fraction of the price he would've sold for in the years to come, United decided to splash their cash on several other players, but none of them really made the grade at Old Trafford.
Their marquee signing in the summer of 2015 was a certain Anthony Martial, who arrived with huge potential but ended up being a massive disappointment.
He was regarded as a future Ballon d'Or winner, with Monaco famously inserting a clause in the deal that would've seen them land a huge bonus if he had won the prestigious prize.
Martial burst onto the scene with an iconic debut goal against Liverpool, which ended up being the highlight of his United career.
Now aged 30, he never got close to his full potential, let alone a Ballon d'Or, and is currently a free agent having left Mexican side Monterrey earlier this year.
The signing of Anthony Martial turned out to be a massive blunder
The signing of Anthony Martial turned out to be a massive blunder (Image: Getty)
United also signed Morgan Schneiderlin, Memphis Depay, Matteo Darmian, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sergio Romero during that same window.
None of them really kicked on at Old Trafford, with that summer's transfer business becoming symbolic of United's failures in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era.
Mbappe, meanwhile, won the World Cup with France in 2018 before scoring a hat-trick in a second final four years later. He is also the leading scorer in the tournament's history.
United could have had a generational talent on their hands, but instead they were left to wonder what might have been.
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