Aston Villa are reportedly in talks to sign Borussia Dortmund attacker, Donyell Malen, who was previously in the books at Arsenal.
Having joined the Gunners back in 2015, Malen spoke proudly about his decision to sign for the club. “When I found out Arsenal were interested in me I felt so proud and excited,” he told the club website and echoed by The Mirror.
“Arsenal was a club that had always interested me for two main reasons – Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry.”
He stayed with Arsenal until August 2017, at which point he transferred to PSV for an estimated £540,000. Thinking back on his departure from the Gunners, the 25-year-old recalled that Andries Jonker, the youth development chief at the time, had called him “too fat” prior to his departure.
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“I heard him say that I came in too fat. That surprised me. They had already been working at Arsenal for two months when I arrived. Then of course you are not immediately at the same level,” Malen explained.
Malen showed his worth in Eindhoven by scoring 55 goals and dishing out 24 assists in 116 games after returning to his home country of the Netherlands, even though Arsenal wanted to keep him on their roster.
“I still had a contract for a year and Arsenal even wanted to extend that,” the Netherlands international stated.
“I don’t play football for the money. I never did that. Otherwise I would not have left England. There are stories that I was not fit when I came to Arsenal. But I have never been too fat, that really is a nonsense story.”
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