Lille striker Jonathan David admits he harboured dreams of playing for Arsenal or Barcelona.
The Canadian joined Lille from Gent last summer and has scored five goals in his last five games.
He was also linked with a move to England, and David has revealed he followed the Gunners as an up and coming player.
He told L'Equipe: "I watched Barca a lot, Arsene Wenger's Arsenal, with Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira. I might not have been ready in my head. But that was the only option, my goal from the start. I knew I had to make sacrifices.
"That's when I met Nick Mavromaras, my agent, who had the contacts."
Borussia Monchengladbach also tried to sign David but the 21-year-old decided on a move to Ligue 1.
"At the meeting with Luis Campos [Lille's sporting director at the time], I liked his project," David added. "It was a very young team, with a lot of ambition and there was the Champions League. I was going to play, continue my progress in a French-speaking environment, which was supposed to help my integration.
"Ligue 1 was a chance to grow at a big club at the top of the table. It was the right time to test myself.
"Gent wanted to keep me. It was tense, but my decision had already been taken. I had seen that Lille were ready fight to get me."
