Ryan Giggs reveals the behind-the-scenes story of Manchester United's refusal to sign Mbappe

Do the Red Devils have regrets?

Manchester United passed up the chance to sign Kylian Mbappe. That's the revelation from former Old Trafford star Ryan Giggs about the Real Madrid forward.

Giggs first clocked Mbappe during his spell as assistant to the Manchester United manager between 2014 and 2016, as he explained on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast.

"I was in the south of France. I was on the Manchester United coaching staff, so this would have been in 2015. I had a wander around the local village and walked back to the hotel," he said.

He went on: "I was walking along the beach back to the hotel, and I felt someone following me. I got to the hotel, and suddenly I felt someone approaching me. Anyway, this man was called Lionel, a Frenchman."

"Then he came up to me and said: hello, I'm Lionel. I just wanted to say hi. I'm one of the biggest Manchester United fans, and I'm one of your biggest fans too. But I watch a lot of youth football matches in France, and there's a player you have to look at," Giggs continued.

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He added: "He said his name was Kylian Mbappe. He plays for Monaco and I think he's a suitable player for Manchester United."

A few weeks on, the tip arrived in full. "He sent me all the details by email. So myself and Albert Stuivenberg, who was another assistant at Manchester United at that time. We used to go in the afternoons to watch matches or to watch players at the training ground. Anyway, I told him about this. He said: come on, let's go and find him," Giggs recalled.

What they saw stopped them in their tracks. "And we watched some of Monaco's youth matches and saw him and said: oh my goodness, what is this? You know, you can see players and they might be special, but he looked exceptional," Ryan noted.

The report went up the chain. "Anyway, we told the scouting team. They went to watch him. Someone in France went to watch him, and he was actually playing against Paris Saint-Germain. Monaco were playing against Paris," he explained.

Then came the anticlimax. "So they went to Paris to watch him. Anyway, I think a few weeks later, I asked the man: how did it go? He replied: yes, they weren't sure about him, so we left it, and that was the end of that," Giggs concluded.

Mbappe joined Paris Saint-Germain on loan in 2017 before making the move permanent the following year for around 170 million pounds.