Giggs reveals how Manchester United's scouts passed on a teenage Mbappe in 2015

Ryan Giggs has revealed that Manchester United were scouted and subsequently rejected the chance to sign Kylian Mbappe in 2015, when the French forward was still a teenager at Monaco.

Speaking on Rio Ferdinand’s ‘The Debrief’, Giggs explained that the chain of events began with an unexpected encounter during a walk in the south of France. A local man named Lionel, who described himself as a Manchester United fan, approached Giggs and urged him to watch a young player at Monaco called Kylian Mbappe.

“He comes up to me and says, ‘hi, I’m Lionel. I just wanted to just say hello. I’m a big United fan and big fan of yours,’” Giggs recalled. “‘But I watch a lot of youth football in France, and you have to look at this player. He’s called Kylian Mbappé. He’s at Monaco and I think he’s a player for Manchester United.’”

Giggs, then part of United’s coaching staff, followed up on the tip. He and fellow assistant Albert attended several Monaco youth fixtures and came away impressed. “We were just like, ‘wow, what is this?’” Giggs said. “You can see players and they can be special, but he did look exceptional.”

The pair passed their recommendation to United’s scouting department, who dispatched someone to Paris to watch Mbappe in a Monaco fixture against PSG. The verdict, delivered weeks later, was blunt. “They weren’t too sure about him, so we just left it,” Giggs was told. “And that was it.”

The decision has aged poorly. Mbappe went on to win the World Cup with France, score a hat-trick in a second World Cup final, and claim the Golden Boot at the 2022 tournament while becoming its all-time leading scorer. In 2018 he joined Paris Saint-Germain from Monaco for £162 million, at the time the second most expensive transfer in football history, before eventually moving to Real Madrid.

Giggs did not identify who within United’s scouting structure made the final call, but his account adds a striking footnote to one of the more consequential missed opportunities in the club’s recent history.