The £72m Arsenal look set to spend on Nicolas Pepe - making him the third most-expensive player signed by a Premier League club - could buy you a supply of chocolate to stretch over several lifetimes, but the career of the Gunners' new record signing could have melted away for the cost of one solitary bar.
While at Angers' youth academy, Pepe and a group of team-mates were accused of eating a chocolate bar inside a supermarket and not paying for it. "One day, we made a mistake," Pepe admitted in an interview with Onze Mondial. "We should have been kicked out of the youth academy."
Having only joined the club in 2013 aged 18, Pepe already had to contend with French football's instinctive suspicion of players who do not arrive early on the production line to the professional ranks.
It is little surprise the 24-year-old still acknowledges the influence of Abdel Bouhazama, the Angers youth academy director who gave him a second chance that day. "Those lessons served me well, and still serve me well today," said Pepe.
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