Just like Chelsea did with Mbappe, in life everybody makes mistakes. Some mistakes that we make tend to look even more appalling later.
Signing players when they are very young is similar to investing in stocks or shares or even cryptocurrency. Sometimes, it pays, and sometimes, it does not. It is the same thing with signing young football players.
Some years ago, Chelsea missed the chance to sign Kylian Mbappe. A player now regarded as the most valuable player in football. Kylian Mbappe came to Chelsea for a trial when he was 14 years old, but Chelsea decided to promote one of their players instead of signing Kylian Mbappe.
Kylian Mbappe’s trial at Chelsea is one the club will not be proud of as they failed to sign a player who is now worth more than £200M. Mbappe came to England for the trial and although Chelsea was impressed with his attacking abilities, the coaches were not impressed with his defending.
Chelsea did not sign him then and instead chose to keep Dominic Solanke instead.
Dominic Solanke
Solanke is an English striker who currently plays for Bournemouth in the Championship.
Solanke failed to break into the Chelsea first team and was later sold to Liverpool. He also could not break into the Liverpool team, but Bournemouth signed him in 2019 for £19M.
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Chelsea wanted to promote Solanke instead of signing Mbappe as they wanted Dominic Solanke and Tammy Abraham to develop a striking partnership.
Tammy and Solanke eventually developed that partnership in the Chelsea youth teams as they went on to lead a youth team that won many trophies at the youth level.
Choosing Solanke and Abraham over Mbappe might sound ridiculous now, but that was the decision that Chelsea made in 2012.
It will be unfair to say that the Chelsea coaches were not good enough to spot talent like Mbappe in 2012, because Mbappe is not the player he is now when he was 14 years old.
