Anthony Lozano reveals he had an opportunity to join Arsenal earlier in his career and blames Sporting FC’s Alexander López for letting the big opportunity slip away.
López graduated from Honduran side Olimpia and made his way into their first team in 2010. A year before that, his club had signed 33-year-old Lozano.
Lozano and the 34-year-old attacking midfielder also played for Honduras U20 and their senior team.
During the 2010/11 season, the duo made a handful of appearances for their clubs but still ended up on Arsenal’s radar.
Why Lozano missed out on Arsenal
While at Olimpia, the Premier League side wanted to bring Anthony Lozano and Alexander López to the Emirates.
However, the Honduran football association sent them for U20 World Cup qualifiers. In the end, Honduras U20 didn’t qualify for the World Cup. Arsenal signed Joel Campbell in 2011, after he starred at the 2011 U20 World Cup for Costa Rica.
Lozano has been without a club since leaving Santos Laguna earlier this year. He has been speaking to journalist Gustavo Roca’s YouTube channel, and El Once HN have relayed his comments.
Disappointed over failed Arsenal move
The forward talks about how close he came to joining the Premier League winners when discussing a failed transfer.
“Something happened with Alex and me the other day when we were talking. We were at a training camp for the U17 or U20 team. We were U20, right? For the Guatemala World Cup, but we were still here,” he said.
“Then they called both of us and said, ‘Get ready, you’re leaving for England tomorrow. Arsenal is going to buy you.’ Then we came and said goodbye to everyone, to all of our teammates.”
“We said goodbye to everyone; Arsenal was going to buy us, with Alex. We left the training camp, super happy, saying, ‘Wow, we did it!’ Then after a while they called us, we each went home, and then they called us again and said, ‘No, in the end, the federation wants you to play in the World Cup qualifiers, and they want you to play with us, so you’re not going to leave until after the qualifiers,’ something like that.”
“And we arrived, we played in the qualifiers, we didn’t qualify, and in the end, they took Joel Campbell. They took him because he also had a really good qualifier. He scored I don’t know how many goals, and Costa Rica qualified. We were left just a step away, because, well, because Alex was also having an incredible qualifier.”
On why he blames Alexander López, Lozano explained: “In the last game, which was the one that decided it, I think it was against Panama, I think, Alex was sanctioned, that is, he was expelled, I think, in a previous game and that’s why, I tell him it’s his fault.”
What next for Honduran
In 2021, while at Cádiz, West Ham United reportedly tried to sign Anthony Lozano but the deal didn’t go through.
The free agent, as per Diez, is now training at Olimpia, to keep himself fit as he looks to find a new club soon.
