Arsenal striker Aubameyang celebrates birthday on Miami beach as reveals he nearly quit football with knee injury
ARSENAL’S hotshot striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has revealed how injury almost saw him QUIT football as a teenager. Aubameyang, the Premier League’s joint top scorer last season, is enjoying a well-earned summer holiday in Miami with his family. But the Gabonese forward, who has been decked out in Gucci swimwear, has revealed how a knee injury […]
ARSENAL’S hotshot striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has revealed how injury almost saw him QUIT football as a teenager.
Aubameyang, the Premier League’s joint top scorer last season, is enjoying a well-earned summer holiday in Miami with his family.
But the Gabonese forward, who has been decked out in Gucci swimwear, has revealed how a knee injury threatened his career as a youngster and almost robbed him of his pace.
Aubameyang spent his childhood playing in France for Laval, Rouen and Bastia before Italian giants AC Milan snapped up the hitman in 2007.
Aubameyang, set to be offered a bumper new £200,000-a-week deal, told Arsenal’s official website: “I was playing on the wing rather than up top because of my pace.
“I’d always been quick and everybody told me I was fast, but when I was a bit older, like 15 or 16, I lost a little bit of pace.
KNEE PROBLEM
“I’d had some problems with my knees and I couldn’t run as fast as I had been able to, so I fell out of love with football for a bit.
“I didn’t have a club, I wasn’t at school, I was just at home trying to think positively.
“It was hard at the time and I did think about quitting, but every day I kept training hard.
“I don’t know why, but I thought that I had to train hard because you never know in life, something can happen.
“Then after six months of hard work, my father called me and said, ‘Are you ready to go training with a team?’ and I said, ‘Yes of course!’ because I had worked for six months for that opportunity.
“That was when I started to train with Bastia and from there, that was the start of my professional career.”
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Aubameyang moved to the Emirates in January last year after making a name as one of the most prolific and quick strikers in Europe at Borussia Dortmund.
Despite Arsenal finishing sixth in the Prem last season, Aubameyang had a successful campaign.
Finishing the season with 22 goals in the league saw Aubameyang pick up the scoring gong alongside Liverpool’s Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
This summer Aubameyang has celebrated his 30th birthday with a trip to Miami via Milan.
His luxury Lamborghini was spotted in the Italian city’s shopping district ahead of the family’s trip to the States.
