Brighton’s Anthony Knockaert has spoken about his 2008 trial at Leeds United.
Brighton & Hove Albion winger Anthony Knockaert could have been lining up against the Seagulls this evening had things panned out differently.
The Frenchman, who has scored six goals in 18 outings this season, has confirmed he once had a trial at opponents Leeds United but cannot remember why he never signed for the Whites.
“I don’t know, I can’t remember why I didn’t go,” Knockaert told Sky Sports’ EFL Weekly podcast. “But I know it’s a big club – there is a few of them in the Championship.
“Obviously I could have joined this club but now it’s the past. I need to think about us on Friday and hopefully we will beat them.”
According to Christophe Demougeot, the scout who took Knockaert to Gunigamp in 2009, Leeds had followed the 25-year-old ‘for a while’.
However, it is claimed that Knockaert’s Thorp Arch trial did not go to plan, and he chose to return to his homeland, where he remained until Leicester City came calling in 2012.
“I thought we had lost him to Leeds because I had already been following him for a while,” Demougeot told the Argus last year. “I was on to him as soon as he arrived at Lesquin.
“He was on trial at Leeds. That didn’t go so well. He preferred to return to France. We took him on trial in July, signed him in December and we allowed him to finish his season at Lesquin before joining us at Guingamp in the summer of 2009.”
Knockaert was a key member of Leicester’s 2014 promotion-winning side, alongside Elland Road striker Chris Wood, but left for Standard Liege at the end of his contract the following summer.
His English exile was short-lived, however, with Brighton paying a reported £2.5 million to bring him to the Amex Stadium in January.
Leeds can close the gap on second-place Brighton to three points with a win on the south coast.
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