West Ham ace Marko Arnautovic has revealed that he was rejected by Nottingham Forest when he was 16 during a trial.
The Austria international is now recognised as a top Premier League star and moved to the Hammers in the summer from Stoke.
The left-winger made a £20million switch to the London Stadium on a five-year deal, which could rise to £25million.
He has revealed that his first taste of English football was a trial with Forest, but explained that he was turned away.
“I scored two and made two assists,” Arnautovic told the Daily Mail. “But the youth coach said they needed someone small and strong like Wayne Rooney. I didn’t even know who Rooney was.
“I told that coach he would dream about me one day.”
Arnautovic has made 66 international caps for Austria and has an impressive 16 goals in return.
The attacker has made a slow start to life at West Ham since his summer arrival, but Slaven Bilic’s side decided to splash the cash for him in the summer.
He racked up 145 appearances during his time with Stoke, scoring 26 goals and supplying 32 assists in return.
The 28-year-old is now entering the peak of his career and will be under pressure to start delivering top performances for the Hammers.
OPINION
Forest fans will be frustrated to hear that they missed out on the chance to grab Arnautovic, who has gone on to become a skilful player. The Championship outfit could have done with a star player to drag them out of England’s second division in recent years and the Austrian certainly could have done that. They have noticed the importance of youth and striker Ben Brereton is the latest rising star to come out of Forest into the first team. However, they missed a trick by turning away Arnautovic, who went for £20million in the current market.