Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe has posted an image of William Saliba to his Instagram account after working with the defender on a new collection for Nike.
The two Ligue 1 footballers grew up as childhood friends with the Saint-Etienne centre-back even coached by the striker's father.
Arsenal secured a deal for the 18-year-old before the start of the season but will have to wait until the summer of 2020 before he is available for selection.
His current club insisted on loaning him back for one final season before his move across the English Channel to play for the Gunners.
Mbappe has his own history with the north London club. Arsene Wenger famously suggested he had wanted to sign the French superstar from Monaco, only for PSG to blow Arsenal out of the water.
The 20-year-old is tipped to replace Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the dominant player of the next decade when it comes to the Ballon d'Or and other individual honours.
However, he has so far been frustrated in the Champions League since leaving Monaco in 2017 for Paris, initially on loan.
In his final season with the Monte Carlo-based club he won the Ligue 1 title and helped Leonardo Jardim's team to the last four of the Champions League.
Mbappe did not score his first Champions League goal until the knock out stages of the 2016/17 season only to go on and score nine before Monaco were knocked out by Juventus in the semi-finals.
He is yet to reach that stage since moving to Paris.
On the international stage, he was part of the squad that lifted the World Cup in Russia in 2018, and scored four goals at the tournament, including the fourth goal for France in their 4-2 win over Croatia in the final.
Saliba was born and raised in Bondy, a suburb of Paris. Wilfried Mbappe, father to Kylian Mbappe, was a youth coach at the local club AS Bondy.
The defender was photographed for the launch of a special #BondyDreams collection designed by the PSG striker and Nike.
Arsenal fans couldn't help but joke about their incoming defender using his connection to the forward to try and set up an unlikely move to the Emirates Stadium in the near future.
Saliba has played seven games this season for Saint-Etienne with five appearances in Ligue 1 and two starts in the Europa League.
