Arsene Wenger reveals he tried to sign Karim Benzema for Arsenal

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Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed that he did once try to sign Real Madrid star Karim Benzema for the north London club.

Speaking on BeIN Sports, the ex-Gunners boss confessed that he attempted to recruit Benzema from the La Liga giants during the same period Gonzalo Higuain was at the club, with the two strikers switching in-and-out of the first-team at the time for Madrid, giving Wenger the opportunity to strike.

When asked if he ever made an attempt to sign Benzema, Wenger said: “Yes, because he was in competition with Higuain for a while. It was Higuain for three games, three games for Benzema. He played the game based on passing and connections, so he was an ideal player up front.”

The French attacker, who Cristiano Ronaldo once labelled as ‘the best striker in the league and one of the world’s best’ as per Four Four Two, was heavily linked with a move to the Gunners in the summer of 2015, but Benzema pulled the plug on a potential move with a now-famous tweet as seen below…

TBR View: Benzema signing could have been the missing piece for 2015/16 title win

2016 will forever be remembered by Premier League fans as the season that Leicester City achieved the impossible and won the title, but for Arsenal supporters, that campaign is looked back on as the last time the club could have, and more than likely should have, claimed the league for themselves.

Indeed, Arsenal finished second that season despite rivals Tottenham being Leicester’s main competitors for the league, yet had the Gunners had Benzema leading the line instead of Olivier Giroud, with Mesut Ozil producing an astonishing 19 assists in the division that year, there’s a reasonable argument to be had that Wenger’s side could have claimed their first league title since the Invincibles year.