Arsenal midfielder Matteo Guendouzi spent most of his youth career coming through the ranks at French giants Paris Saint-Germain.
The 20-year-old joined the Ligue 1 Champions at just six years of age, making his way through the youth teams in the French capital. But in 2014, the player decided to move on from his first club in search of a better chance of regular first team football elsewhere.
Guendouzi joined up with FC Lorient, initially playing for their U17 team, he broke into their 'B' side and, eventually the first team, his debut coming in October 2016 against FC Nantes, where he played the final 14 minutes of the Ligue 1 game.
30 more appearances for the French club followed, before the midfielder sealed a move to the Emirates Stadium in the summer of 2018. He was originally bought in with thoughts that he would join the club's development squad, but 48 first team appearances came during 2018/19.
Guendouzi has not looked back since, he has quickly established himself as a key member of Unai Emery's team this season, putting in a man of the match display in the north London derby draw before the international break. The Frenchman has also earned a first call up to the French national side and could make his debut against Andorra tonight (Tuesday).
The choice to leave PSG at a young age seems to have paid off for the Arsenal man, and in an interview with RMC (via Le10 Sport ), Guendouzi's agent Philippe Nabe explained the reasons behind the decision.
"When Matteo left PSG preform, it was to try to have play time as quickly as possible," he said.
"After there was peculiarities in relation to his playing profile, he was relatively frail at the time, and Paris relies more on athletic profiles, including Boubakary Soumare now in Lille, who was competing with Matteo.
"So we had a choice to make relatively early, and the contractual situation allowed us to leave the club at that time, because Matteo had not had an aspirant contract proposal before April 30, at the end of the year.
"So we could go to Lorient, but that was the idea. Join a more modest club to allow it to play as quickly as possible."
