Lyon’s chief scout has admitted that letting Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann go as a youngster was his club’s “biggest mistake”.
The forward trained with the French giants every Wednesday in 2002 but was turned away in favour of Alexandre Lacazette, Clement Grenier and Yannis Tafer, the latter of whom now plays in Switzerland, and subsequently began his professional career with Real Sociedad.
“It was our biggest mistake in years, a historic mistake,” Gerard Bonneau lamented to AS.
“We had him every Wednesday but didn’t make a move. In the end, Real Sociedad signed him two years later.
“He wasn’t let go because of his small stature. We don’t only look to keep the physical players.
“The truth is that in his generation and in position, we had three players who also had a lot of promise.
“They were [Alexandre] Lacazette, [Clement] Grenier [both of whom are in Lyon’s first team] and [Yannis] Tafer [now with Swiss side St Gallen].
“He was let go and it was a shame.”
