You could fill a book with the footballing superstars Arsenal tried and failed to sign during the Arsene Wenger era, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Kylian Mbappe to Luis Suarez.
While Dejan Kulusevski is yet to force his way into the A-list, it seems only a matter of time before a 20-year-old handed the creative reins by Andrea Pirlo at Juventus is firmly established as one of the game’s most influential midfielders.
The Serie A champions paid £30 million back in January to sign the Sweden international from Atalanta in the midst a stellar loan spell at Parma, which earned Kulusevski the league’s Young Player of the Year award.
And if there was any doubt about whether he could stroll into Turin and dominate from the get-go, they have been ruthlessly dispelled during a couple of stand-out performances in a Juve team yet to truly click in attack.
Only the evergreen Ronaldo has scored more Serie A goals than the rangy play-maker since Pirlo took over.
And the modern game’s most feared marksman will not be short of ammunition as long as Kulusevski continues to slice open defences in a manner reminiscent of his idol – a certain Kevin de Bruyne.
“He is a great talent,” Ronaldo told JuveFC.com of Kulusevski recently. “He will help us to win and achieve incredible things.
“I really like to see him, he has a great potential, and he’s an excellent player. I hope to play with him and score a lot of goals together.”
17 years after Manchester United nabbed a toothy, ombre-tipped Portuguese winger from under Wenger’s nose, Arsenal may soon be kicking themselves about their failure to land Ronaldo’s newest sparring partner.
According to Goal, Arsenal wanted to sign a teenage Kulusevski from Brommapojkarna in 2016. A little-known youngster rejected their advances, however, and headed to Bergamo instead for a bargain fee of £86,000.
Four years and three Atalanta appearances later, Kulusevski is now the most in-form attacker wearing the iconic black and white stripes of a bona fide European giant.
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