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It’s absolutely no secret that European giants could save a lot of money if they signed South American talents directly from their countries at a young age.

Ajax are one of the sides who do that job very well, as they only spent €15.75m to sign Antony from São Paulo to later sell him to Manchester United for €95m.

And it turns out that in this specific case, it’s actually Chelsea who could’ve taken the winger from Brazil a few years ago, which comes as part of a story told by club advisor Piet de Visser.

The official was today interviewed by Voetbal Nieuws podcast The King of Manchester.

There he claims that when watching the new Manchester United signing playing for his country’s youth ranks, he was interested in taking the player to Chelsea, but that wasn’t possible.

“Together with Hans van der Zee [former Ajax head scout] we saw him for the first time at Brazil’s youth ranks and we were both charmed by him. That was a few years ago, just before he went to Ajax,” says De Visser (via Voetbal Primeur).

“I thought he had to make an intermediate step and then Hans suggested Ajax. And then we would take him right from Ajax.”

“We couldn’t get him, I would have wanted him. He’s a boy with poison in his backside. He sometimes crosses the line, but he comes from the favela, doesn’t he?”

Chelsea have had their fair share of Brazilians in the past few years, but with the likes of Lucas Piazon and Robert Kenedy getting involved in endless loans, perhaps Antony wouldn’t have been given many chances at the Blues either.

At Manchester United, the winger has two appearances to his name following his big summer transfer, having scored a goal in his debut against Arsenal.