Former Chelsea scout Daniel Boga has claimed that Kylian Mbappe's mother pulled the plug on a possible move to Stamford Bridge in 2012.
French youngster Mbappe trained with the Blues for a week as a 13-year-old and played in a junior fixture, impressing coaches with his attacking ability.
However, the club were unconvinced by his work-rate and asked him to come back for another trial — a request mum Fayza Lamari rejected.
'I brought him over with his family,' Boga told Goal. 'He was skilful like he is now. He played against Charlton and won 7-0.
'After a week at Chelsea, we went into the office. We said "Listen, we appreciate what we saw from you but we have to invite you back for another trial and we'll see after that."
'I remember what the mother said to this day. She spoke in French and I was translating.
'She said to me, "Listen, my boy won't be coming back. If they want him they have to take him now or in five year's time they will be coming back to buy him for €50million!"'
He was very skilful but in England, they want to see the player track back and be a hard worker. At the time, he wasn't a hard worker.
'Defensively, he wasn't there yet. When he got the ball, he was unbelievable, but without the ball, he didn't work a lot.
'Chelsea wanted to see him again to see how he could improve on this. I think that's why they asked him back. He did skilful things and dribbled well. So, maybe the things they wanted to see in the second trial was improved work on the defensive side.
'They should have signed him. To be fair, though, it is easy to say that now. But, at the time, Chelsea had a good squad.'
