Now at AC Milan, there was a time when Ismaël Bennacer had to make a choice between Manchester City and Arsenal.
This came at a time when he was still in France, at Arles-Avignon more precisely, and was being courted by a number of teams from the Premier League.
He eventually ended up at Arsenal, as everyone knows, but he came quite close to putting pen to paper in the north of England at Manchester City, as he revealed in an interview with Instant Foot, relayed by La Gazette du Fennec.
He said: “(Manchester City) called me and told me ‘we want you to be with the reserves’ and everything. It’s City, man. I was ready. They told me ‘come see the facilities’, so I did. I got there, I don’t know, I wasn’t feeling it.
“Their facilities were crazy. Amazing. I spoke with Vieira and everything. I liked the talk we had, but the fact they wanted me at the academy, to sleep there… I wanted a flat. I wanted my sister to come with me. That’s why I dropped City. Then there was Arsenal towards the end of July.”
That’s when the player eventually made his way to London, and clearly got what he wanted from Arsenal, meaning a flat.
After snubbing Manchester City, the now 25-year-old spent two years at Arsenal, with a six month loan to Tours in 2017, before being sold to Empoli for €1m.
That’s when everything took off for him, leading to his €19.2m transfer to AC Milan in 2019, where he has been ever since.
The midfielder is currently injured, but has been linked with a move to Manchester City in the past, with it quite clear that Pep Guardiola is a big fan of him.
