Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has confirmed they had a chance of signing Bayern Munich wing-back Alphonso Davies as a teen.

Former Vancouver Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson revealed to Tribalfootball.com earlier this year that Palace were among English clubs keen on the Canadian superkid.

Robinson admitted: "Whenever you have someone about 15 or 16 years of age playing first team football it gets flagged by the big clubs. On our preseason tour of Wales, it wasn't just your usual suspects like Liverpool or West Ham, but Swansea and Crystal Palace had some serious interest, but they didn't exactly agree with his value at the time."

And Parish told Suddeutsche Zeitung yesterday: "When he was 15, 16 in a football school in Edmonton, where my sister lives, she recommended him to me.

"We flew to Canada especially to see the player. We wanted to sign him, but once again we couldn't get a work permit in England!

"True story! I still have all the mails. I'm sure he would have been interested in coming to us - and we were very early!

"So I was a little torn when I watched Bayern. But I'm happy for Alphonso. And to see Bayern win is good, because it is a rich but self-sustaining club. I see a team that is bigger than the sum of its parts."