Arsenal ace Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang admits he almost walked away from the game early in his career.

The striker has revealed just how close he was to quitting during his days as a youth player in France, where he spent time with Laval, Rouen and Bastia before being signed up to AC Milan's coveted junior system in 2007.

"I was playing on the wing rather than up top because of my pace," he told Arsenal's official website . "I'd always been quick and everybody told me I was fast, but when I was a bit older, like 15 or 16, I lost a little bit of pace.

"I'd had some problems with my knees and I couldn't run as fast as I had been able to, so I fell out of love with football for a bit. I didn't have a club, I wasn't at school, I was just at home trying to think positively.

"It was hard at the time and I did think about quitting, but every day I kept training hard. I don't know why, but I thought that I had to train hard because you never know in life, something can happen.

"Then after six months of hard work, my father called me and said, 'Are you ready to go training with a team?' and I said, 'Yes of course!' because I had worked for six months for that opportunity.

"That was when I started to train with Bastia and from there, that was the start of my professional career."