The Stunning Moment Man Utd Let Kylian Mbappe Slip Through Their Fingers Before He Took the World by Storm

Manchester United passed up a chance to sign Kylian Mbappé before he rose to global stardom, after a scout failed to be convinced by the young forward over a decade ago.

The account comes from former United player and coach Ryan Giggs, who revealed he was tipped off about Mbappé by a stranger he encountered on a beach in the south of France sometime around 2015.

Giggs, who recently also disclosed that Pep Guardiola was so impressed by a teenage Marcus Rashford that he would have signed him for Manchester City, shared the story during an appearance on Rio Ferdinand Presents The Debrief.

A man named Lionel followed Giggs—who was serving as assistant manager to Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford at the time—along the beach toward his hotel before approaching him.

"He comes up to me and says, 'Hi, I'm Lionel. I just wanted to say hello. I'm a big United fan and a 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 Mbappé. He's at Monaco and I think he's a player for Man United.'"

Man Utd Scout Watched 17-Year-Old Mbappe

Mbappé may have been an unfamiliar name to Manchester United at that point, though reports suggest Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, and Bayern Munich all attempted and failed to sign him at age 14. Real Madrid's early pursuit is well documented. He ultimately chose Monaco.

A 16-year-old Mbappé was on the verge of breaking into Monaco's senior squad in 2015 and made his Ligue 1 debut just over two weeks before turning 17 at the end of that year. By that point, Giggs had already enlisted fellow assistant Albert Stuivenberg—now part of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal coaching staff—to review scouting footage of Mbappé from various Monaco youth fixtures.

Reflecting on what he saw in that footage, Giggs said: "Wow, what is this? You can see players and they can be special, but he did look exceptional, obviously."

He recalled: "We told the scouting team. Someone in France went to watch him and he was actually playing [against] PSG. Monaco were playing PSG. So they went to Paris to watch him."

That match can be identified as the one played on March 3, 2016—only Mbappé's second-ever Ligue 1 start—which produced just the second of PSG's two league losses that entire season. Mbappé started on the right wing, his customary position in those early days, and featured for 81 minutes of Monaco's 2–0 win. The goals were scored by Fabinho, who would later join Liverpool, and Vágner Love, the flamboyant Brazilian striker best remembered for his spell at CSKA Moscow.

Giggs said several weeks passed before he received the scout's verdict: "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."

Missed Opportunity to Pursue Era-Defining Star

There are, of course, no guarantees that Mbappé—or Monaco—would have entertained an approach from Manchester United. Still, it's worth noting that an exciting attack built around veteran Zlatan Ibrahimović and bolstered by rising talents Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial was taking shape at the club. The latter had also recently made the move from Monaco to the Premier League himself and was widely regarded as a future superstar.

Paul Pogba, another French international, arrived in 2016 for a then-world-record fee, and there was widespread optimism around the club as proven winner José Mourinho took over as manager.

It was the following 2016–17 campaign that Mbappé truly announced himself, cementing his place at Monaco and contributing 39 goals and assists across 44 appearances in all competitions. That Monaco side pipped PSG to the Ligue 1 title and advanced to the Champions League semifinals, with a freshly turned 18-year-old Mbappé netting six times in six knockout-stage matches—including home and away against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in the round of 16.

By that stage, United had already missed their window. PSG, in the same transfer window they shattered the world record by activating Neymar's Barcelona release clause, struck a deal with Monaco to bring Mbappé in on loan with a purchase obligation in 2018. The €180 million fee ($209 million at today's exchange rate) remains the second largest in history. Beyond finances, the pull of home was undeniable—Mbappé was born in Paris and grew up in the northeastern suburbs of the city.

Mbappé netted 256 goals in 308 appearances for PSG over seven seasons and is already closing in on a century of goals for Real Madrid, having reached 91 in the early weeks of just his third season in the Spanish capital. He is the all-time top scorer for both France and the World Cup, and at just 27 years old, still has plenty of football ahead of him.