Arsenal’s record signing Nicolas Pepe has been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe by his former club’s sporting director.
Pepe lit up Ligue 1 last season, scoring 22 goals and providing 12 assists. His performances helped the side finish as runners up and return to the Champions League this season. Arsenal forked out a club record £72million earlier this summer to sign Pepe, but he is yet to find the same form as last season in the Premier League.
Campos, who identified Pepe in 2017 when he was playing for fellow Ligue 1 side Angers, spoke about the Ivorian’s special quality that is possessed by two of world football’s best players today in Ronaldo and Mbappe.
He said: “In my opinion one of the characteristics of a top, top player is that they like football. I remember working with Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe. They know everything about football. Mbappe knew all the results of the second division in France.
“Nicolas Pepe is like that. Heʼs another example of the importance of a player liking football. After a game he watches the whole game again two times, to make himself more perfect.”
His willingness to re-watch games is something that Unai Emery would have loved about him thanks to the Arsenal boss’ reputation of making players watch their own performances over and over again in order to improve.
Pepe, who has only scored once so far, has shown glimpses of his quality in the red and white but there is a lot more to come from him. Comparisons with players like Mbappe and Ronaldo is massive, especially coming from a hugely respected sporting director like Campos.
Based on last season’s performances, Pepe has all the qualities to get to their level in the coming years.
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