Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger could have signed Chelsea star Didier Drogba for £100,000!
The Daily Mail says Drogba graduated from Christian Pornin's youth team at Levallois to Srebrenko Repcic's senior side, who competed in National 2 - the fourth tier of French football - at roughly the same time Arsene Wenger joined Arsenal.
Wenger's arrival would increase the flow of elite football talent across the Channel to the Barclays Premier League and there was a time he considered signing Drogba as he continued to make rapid progress at Guingamp.
The price was £100,000 but Wenger declined. It was to prove a costly mistake. Marseille would later pay £3.3million for Drogba and sell him to Chelsea, 12 months later, for £24m. Little Levallois banked a five per cent cut of each transfer fee, a FIFA rule designed to reward clubs who invest in development.
"I remember the cheque from Roman Abramovich," said the Mayor of Levallois, Patrick Balkany. "A big one."
