Gonzalo Higuain admits 'surprise' over failed Arsenal transfer in 2013 | OneFootball

Gonzalo Higuain has revealed he expected to join Arsenal in 2013, only for the Gunners to surprisingly pull out of the deal at the last minute.

At that point in his career, Higuain was still on the books of Real Madrid but was struggling for regular starts in a team that included both Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo - although that didn't stop him from bagging 16 La Liga goals in just 19 starts in the 2012/13 campaign.

Higuain would end up joining Napoli that summer, where he would break scoring records before securing a £75.3m move to Juventus three years later.

However, in an interview with TyC Sports, Higuain revealed that he was actually expecting to join Arsenal instead of Napoli, only to see the Gunners choose Real Madrid team-mate Mesut Ozil instead.

"Before going to Napoli, Arsenal were there," he said. "We had already talked by they didn't buy me, they bought Ozil for €80m or something like that.

"They told me: 'We don't have much money to spend, you are too expensive'. From there, I went to Napoli. Two days later, I see Ozil for €80m."

Arsenal had signed Olivier Giroud 12 months earlier and the Frenchman would end up being the team's top scorer for the 2013/14 campaign, but they remained in the market for a new striker and signed both Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck in 2014.

Higuain, on the other hand, led Napoli's front line for three years and came close to leading the Partenopei to a famous Serie A title before controversially jumping ship to taste success with Juventus in 2016/17.