Zlatan Ibrahimovic turned down a move to Arsenal when he was a teenager.
Sweden superstar Ibrahimovic scored a spectacular goal to beat England this week to remind Arsene Wenger of how Arsenal nearly signed him as a 16-year-old.
Gunners boss Wenger revealed Ibrahimovic was invited to train with the Arsenal first team but backed out and later joined Ajax, AC Milan, Barcelona and is now at Paris Saint Germain.
Arsenal also had Cristiano Ronaldo at the training ground when he was a youngster for TWO MONTHS - but could not tie up a deal.
Wenger said: "He was here at the training ground, and then went somewhere else. That has happened to many players - Ronaldo was here, Ibrahimovic was here. It does not mean they sign for you.
"The story is true I wanted to see him. I did not know him, you cannot sign players you have not seen at all because it is not serious.
"He was 16, I asked him to have some training with the first team, he did not want to do it and I did not sign him.
"I am more a fan of team goals than of individual goals, but I must say it was exceptional. It was a fantastic combination of flexibility, strength and skill. He was also in zone, where you have no confidence problem at all.
"He had scored three goals before, and was on a day where everything becomes easy. It happens in every sport.
"To get into that zone, you need to have success before that in the game. Was it at 1-0 down or 0-0, in the last minute of the game, would he have tried it? Would he have scored? I am not sure.
"It shows you how important it is to get that confidence in our sport, to just do things with a freedom of spirit without any handbrake."
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