As Benjamin Franklin once famously wrote: ‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes and Arsene Wenger nearly signing talented young footballers, only for them to go somewhere else and be really, really good.’
(We might have added that last bit.)
Still, in his time, the Arsenal boss is believed to have come close to signing a number of the world’s most talented young footballers – from Cristiano Ronaldo to Kylian Mbappé.
Now, it appears Manchester City starlet Oleksandr Zinchenko can be added to that list. The Ukrainian, who has made a number of first team appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side this season, arrived at The Etihad in 2016. He’s impressed whenever called upon by his manager and has also produced one of the cutest man of the match presentations you will ever see.
He could, however, have been plying his trade at The Emirates…
Sandor Varga, an agent close to the Arsenal manager, recently spoke to Sport-Express (via Sport Witness). During this interview, he reveals that Wenger was so impressed by Zinchenko during a Uefa Youth League match against Arsenal’s youngster, he wanted to sign the then-17-year-old.
“Arsène called me and asked me about him. Shakhtar beat Arsenal in the Uefa Youth League, Wenger saw 20 minutes of him and said ‘I need this guy’,” Varga explains.
“He asked me to transfer Zinchenko, and wanted him for the first-team straight away, not the reserves, but certain circumstances interfered. There was a lot of talk regarding his move from Donetsk to Russia. It’s a shame. He lost five years of his career before moving to the Premier League.”
Zinchenko instead left Donetsk for Russian club FC Ufa in 2015, joining up with City a year later.
