Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde has confirmed that he turned down the chance to sign for Arsenal at the age of 16, as he was never interested in moving to England.
The Uruguay international has been an integral player for Los Blancos for a number of years now and captained the 15-time European champions to a thrilling 3-2 win over Manchester City in the first leg of their Champions League playoff in midweek.
Valverde has now struck 29 goals of his own while providing 27 assists in 297 appearances for Real Madrid across all competitions, including eight strikes and four helpers from 38 matches in the current campaign.
The 26-year-old previously came through the youth setup at Uruguayan outfit Penarol before joining Real Madrid's Castilla ranks for just £4.2m in 2016, although he was courted by a European giant just before that.
In 2014, Valverde went for a brief trial with Arsene Wenger's Arsenal - as he revealed in The Players' Tribune - but the South American decided that staying in his homeland would be the best move for his development.
Valverde: 'Maybe half-true I nearly signed for Arsenal'
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"If you Google me, you will see stories about how I almost went to Arsenal when I was 16. That's maybe half-true. It's nothing against Arsenal, but I never wanted to go to England," Valverde wrote.
"They sent me on trial to London for a week, and I just wasn't comfortable. If you only think of material things, it sounds great. But we are not robots. The reality was that my family couldn't come to London with me. I'd have to live alone, not speaking the language, at 16-years-old.
"At that time, the business side of football took over. Certain people were telling me, 'Who wouldn't want to go play for Arsenal? You want to stay here in Uruguay? That's crazy!'
"What they were really saying under their breath was, 'We can all make a lot of money if you go.' Damn, Fede, if you go to Arsenal, you'll have a nice bed and a shower that stays warm for 30, 40 minutes! Who wouldn't want that life?'"
Since turning his nose up to the Gunners, Valverde has established himself as one of Europe's most accomplished and versatile midfielders under Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti, and he is under contract at Real Madrid until the summer of 2029.
Could Arsenal use a Valverde now?
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Had a 16-year-old Valverde taken a North London leap of faith, he could have followed the same path as Cesc Fabregas, who memorably left Barcelona as a teenager and made quite the name for himself at Highbury and the Emirates.
However, as the midfielder pointed out, moving to an incredibly unfamiliar location at such a young age is certainly not for everyone, and his decision to wait for two more years before heading to Madrid was evidently the right one.
The 26-year-old could have been an intriguing option for the summer window, when Arsenal stand to lose both Thomas Partey and Jorginho on free transfers, and his ability to seamlessly slot in at right-back could have been useful during Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu's spells on the sidelines.
Valverde's best work comes as a number eight as opposed to a holding midfielder, though, and Arsenal are already set to address their engine room exits this summer with the signing of Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad.
Ultimately, Valverde to Arsenal will go down as one of the nearly-but-not-quite transfers for the Gunners under Wenger, of which there are quite a few high-profile ones.
Ben Knapton
