signing, could have moved to north London in
2002 but was denied a work permit, so went to
Rennes in France instead
Petr Cech has revealed he could have become an
Arsenal player more than a decade ago had work
permit restrictions not scuppered a switch to the
Premier League.
The Czech Republic international completed a
move to Emirates Stadium from rivals Chelsea on
Monday after falling becoming second choice for
Jose Mourinho behind Thibaut Courtois.
However, Cech could have been first choice at
Arsenal much sooner had their original move for
him in 2002 gone through, with the goalkeeper
instead leaving Sparta Prague for Rennes, before
arriving at Chelsea for what became a memorable
11-year stint.
"There was a chance before I went to France to
join Rennes for me to sign for Arsenal, but I was
only 18 or 19 and, at that time, Czech Republic
were not in the European Union," he told the club's
official website.
"You needed a work permit and the conditions
were that you had to play 75 per cent of the first-
team games for the national team, which, at the
time, was impossible for me to get. In the end I
went to France because I couldn't get a work
permit.
"Back then, a few teams were interested in me but
Arsenal was one of the main ones. I was so
excited because of the Premier League and big
clubs coming in for me but unfortunately it was
not the time for me to come to England.
"My time was later with Chelsea, and I'm obviously
grateful for that, but you never know where you'll
end up. Here we are and I hope that I can replicate
here everything that I have managed to achieve in
the past decade.
"If I could have got my work permit, maybe my
story would have been a completely different story
but here we are 10 or more years later, and now
we can write the story again."
No comments:
Post a Comment