Why Chelsea rejected the chance to sign Kylian Mbappe

Kylian Mbappe is already one of the world’s best strikers at just 19 but he could be banging in goals in the blue of Chelsea were it not for the Frenchman’s mum.

A 13-year-old Mbappe was plucked from the suburbs of Paris back in 2012 and taken to West London by former Blues scout Daniel Boga.

The teenage striker impressed but not enough to earn a deal right there and then and when Chelsea asked him to return for a second trial to prove he could improve his workrate, his mother Fayza Lamari stepped in.

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Boga told Goal.com: “Chelsea were the first ones to give him a trial. We did it before Real Madrid. I had a friend who worked for Nike, Denis Chantron, and when I was in France, we met and he said ‘Have you heard of this young boy called Mbappe? He plays for Bondy, this small club from the suburbs of Paris.’

“I said I hadn’t and he said ‘You have to watch him.’ I went there and watched him and I called him back straight away and I said ‘Listen, this boy is really something.’

“I brought him over with his family. He was skilful, like he is now. He played against Charlton and won 7-0.”

But that wasn’t enough for the Blues, who wanted Mbappe to prove he could work on the defensive side of is game. But it was his mum Fayza who ened proving the most defensive.

After a week at Chelsea they told Mbappe and his family: “Listen, we appreciate what we saw from you but we have to invite you back for another trial and we’ll see after that.

Boga adds: “I remember what the mother said to this day. She spoke in French to Fraser and I was translating. She said to me, ‘Listen, my boy won’t be coming back. If they want him they have to take him now or in five year’s time they will be coming back to buy him for €50 million!’

“That’s what she said to me! I said, ‘No I can’t say that to them. It is too cocky for me.’

“She was right, though. It wasn’t even €50m but €180m that someone would pay. So, she knew the quality of her son and she was right.“

Almost stereotypically for the English game, despite having a first-team squad packed with talented talented individuals, it was Chelsea’s request for a more physical Mbappe that eventually was the deals’ undoing.

“He was very skilful but in England they want to see the player track back and be a hard worker. At the time, he wasn’t a hard worker. Defensively, he wasn’t there yet. When he got the ball, he was unbelievable, but without the ball, he didn’t work a lot.

“Chelsea wanted to see him again to see how he could improve on this. I think that’s why they asked him back. He did skilful things and dribbled well. So, maybe the things they wanted to see in the second trial was improved work on the defensive side.

“They should have signed him. To be fair, though, it is easy to say that now. But, at the time, Chelsea had a good squad.”

Las year Mbappe spoke of his trial at Chelsea with fondness. “It was a wonderful experience,” he said according to Football365. “Chelsea was the first great club, the first big club, that I went to visit. So it was a real discovery for me.

“I was coming from my grassroots, amateur club. It was a whole new world. Of course I had an idea what a great football club was like but I was really impressed by the working culture and the mentality of wanting to be better day-in, day-out.

“And visiting this infrastructure helped me, actually, with my development. I saw things differently because up until then I had just a French mentality and after that I could pick what was positive in other mentalities and build my own.”

Despite that and interest from Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Arsenal he chose Monaco, signed for them at 15, and the rest is history.

How Chelsea wish they had a striker of Mbappe’s quality now.