With Milan set to play against Tottenham in the Champions League for the return leg of their two game clash, UEFA sat down with former Arsenal midfielder Ismaël Bennacer.
The now established player joined the Gunners from AC Arles in 2015 back when Arsène Wenger was still in charge, and he even made a handful of appearances for the first-team in the cups.
However, after two years with the club and a loan to Tours in France where he got a taste of regular first-team football, the now 25-year-old decided it was time to leave Arsenal.
That’s when he made the leap to Empoli in Italy for €1m, where he helped the club for two years before AC Milan swooped in and paid €17.2m for his services.
Now, ahead of the Champions League clash, the player recalled the start of his big career, when clubs from England were trying to recruit him, and explained why he eventually chose Arsenal.
“The fact that Arsenal did everything to make me feel comfortable, to make me feel at home, convinced me to sign. It was tough, especially in the first few months, but I got used to it. I had a clear goal in mind.”
He wanted to learn, and that’s exactly what he did at Arsenal, getting some advice from some of the best coaches in the business, who knew exactly how to mould young talent, given they had been doing it for years.
However, there came a point where he needed more.
Bennacer added: “That’s why I left the club. As soon as I felt that first phase was over, I had to take my career to the next level, and that meant playing in the first-team. I didn’t care where. I had three years left on my contract with Arsenal, but I chose to sign with Empoli because that was the club that I was most attracted to from a sporting point of view.
“I didn’t know anything about the club, but I was told they were a club that liked to sign young people and sell them on. I like that. It matched my ambition. My short-term goal was to play, and show what I was capable of before moving onto a bigger club.”
