Ryan Giggs says the advice of a stranger could have led to Manchester United signing a young Kylian Mbappe but Red Devils scouts didn’t think he was good enough.

The Manchester United legend has told the strange story of missed opportunity from 2015 on Rio Ferdinand Presents: The Debrief.

Giggs was on the coaching staff at Old Trafford at the time, when Louis van Gaal was manager of the Red Devils.

The Welshman was given a tip off by a local in France about a talented prospect and Giggs followed up on the bit of advice.

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Unfortunately for Manchester United fans everywhere, the club’s scouting department did not see the potential in the teenage Monaco forward.

Mbappe left Monaco for Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 and is now at Real Madrid, where he has scored 91 goals in 108 appearances.

He would have been a handy signing.

Giggs explained: ‘So, I’m in the south of France. I’ve been for a walk in the local village and I’m walking back to the hotel. And I can feel someone, you know, when you feel someone like following you.

‘I get to the hotel and then all of a sudden I can feel someone coming up to me. This guy is called Lionel. He comes up to me and says, ‘hi, I’m Lionel. I just wanted to just say hello. I’m a big United fan and big fan of yours.”

‘But I watch a lot of youth football in France, and you have to look at this player. He’s called Kylian Mbappe. He’s at Monaco and I think he’s a player for Manchester United.

‘A few weeks later, he emailed me all the details. So me and Albert [Stuivenberg], he was another assistant at United at the time, I’ve told him about this thing.

‘We go to a few youth games with Monaco and we’ve seen him (Mbappe) and we were just like, “‘wow, what is this?” You can see players and they can be special, but he did look exceptional, obviously.

‘We told the scouting team. They went to watch him. Someone in France went to watch him and he was actually playing PSG.

‘Monaco were playing PSG. So they went to Paris to watch him. Anyway, I think a few weeks later, I said to this guy, “how did it go?” He went, “yeah, they weren’t too sure about him, so we just left it”. And that was it.’

There will be countless stories about Manchester United being close to signing superstars and missing out.

Memorably in 2003 the Red Devils had bids turned down by PSG for Ronaldinho before he moved to Barcelona.

Premier League record goal-scorer Alan Shearer twice could have moved to Old Trafford, but opted for Blackburn and then Newcastle United.


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