{"id":1107411,"date":"2019-09-20T19:15:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T18:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1107411"},"modified":"2019-09-20T18:21:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T17:21:24","slug":"leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Leicester City midfielder Dennis Praet has revealed he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal as a youngster.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old Belgium international joined the Foxes from Sampdoria this summer for a reported \u00a318m.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Praet&#8217;s decision: Five key things to know\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Praet started at Belgian outfit Genk but never played for their senior team.<\/li>\n<li>He joined Anderlecht aged 16, registering 27 goals across 182 first-team appearances.<\/li>\n<li>Before relocating to Brussels, a host of clubs were after his signature, including Arsenal.<\/li>\n<li>Praet, who saw the Gunners as a &#8220;nice step&#8221;, opted to remain in Belgium.<\/li>\n<li>He&#8217;s since found his way to the Premier League, signing for Leicester City this summer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7373702-tammy-abraham-can-equal-a-unique-luis-suarez-feat-vs-liverpool<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s since gone on to make two Premier League appearances, totalling 82 minutes, under Brendan Rodgers with just one of those coming from the start.<\/p>\n<p>However, things could have been different for the Leuven-born footballer, who was coveted by a host of top European clubs during his youth playing days.<\/p>\n<p>A graduate of KRC Genk, where the likes of Yannick Carrasco and Kevin De Bruyne started their footballing journey, Praet saw the likes of Arsenal and Ajax battle for his signature but he politely turned them down.<\/p>\n<p>A big reason was his education, as well as the fact he didn&#8217;t feel comfortable leaving Belgium as a teenager.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chelsea Must Play Frank Lampard&#039;s Back Three w\/Rory Jennings\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SJVdL5KI2qc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"http:\/\/sqwk.at\/Squawka-Sub\" rel=\"noopener\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had three or four really good options,&#8221; he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2019\/sep\/20\/dennis-praet-leicester-boots-arsenal-sampdoria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We went to visit Arsenal, Lille, Ajax and Anderlecht. Arsenal would have been a really nice step and I could earn a lot more money there than in Anderlecht, but at that moment my education was not finished and that was really important for me \u2013 there was no insurance that I would become a good football player.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Praet ultimately joined Belgian powerhouse Anderlecht aged 16 and would go on to make 182 appearances for Les Mauves et Blancs, registering 27 goals and creating a further 39 for his teammates.<\/p>\n<p>His revelation comes just days after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/wenger-cristiano-ronaldo-explains-failed-arsenal-transfer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cristiano Ronaldo revealed Arsene Wenger made an attempt to sign<\/a> him just before his move to Manchester United, while Wenger himself admitted he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/jadon-sancho-borussia-dortmund-premier-league-arsenal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tried to lure Jadon Sancho to the Emirates<\/a> while he was still a Man City player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leicester City midfielder Dennis Praet has revealed he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal as a youngster. The 25-year-old Belgium international joined the Foxes from Sampdoria this summer for a reported \u00a318m. Praet&#8217;s decision: Five key things to know\u2026 Praet started at Belgian outfit Genk but never played for their senior team. He joined&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":1107416,"parent":0,"menu_order":5062,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Leicester City midfielder Dennis Praet has revealed he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal as a youngster.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1107411","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster | Squawka | EN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Leicester City midfielder Dennis Praet has revealed he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal as a youngster.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Leicester City midfielder Dennis Praet has revealed he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal as a youngster.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Squawka | EN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SquawkaFootballNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/20160727\/PA-44751233-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1466\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@squawka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mohamed Moallim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/46582d436cbfa44c50f11dd9e9e6f22c\"},\"headline\":\"Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-20T18:15:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":391,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media.squawka.com\\\/images\\\/en\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/20160727\\\/PA-44751233-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/\",\"name\":\"Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster | Squawka | EN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media.squawka.com\\\/images\\\/en\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/20160727\\\/PA-44751233-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-20T18:15:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"Leicester City midfielder Dennis Praet has revealed he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal as a youngster.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media.squawka.com\\\/images\\\/en\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/20160727\\\/PA-44751233-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media.squawka.com\\\/images\\\/en\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/20160727\\\/PA-44751233-1.jpg\",\"width\":1466,\"height\":1024},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Squawka\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Squawka | EN\",\"description\":\"Football News, Stats, and More...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/46582d436cbfa44c50f11dd9e9e6f22c\",\"name\":\"Mohamed Moallim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/745e1c4126cef29da74a30842230f6dd19f94a0b1223e2b89a1863093c4643ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/745e1c4126cef29da74a30842230f6dd19f94a0b1223e2b89a1863093c4643ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/745e1c4126cef29da74a30842230f6dd19f94a0b1223e2b89a1863093c4643ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mohamed Moallim\"},\"description\":\"I'm a freelance writer who specialises in the beautiful game. With over ten years of experience, I have been published in the Independent and Daily Mirror and numerous magazines, including FourFourTwo and Champions Journal. I've also appeared as a Dutch football expert on Talksport and BBC Five Live. When I'm not working, you can find me studying all fields of knowledge no matter how obscure.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/iammoallim\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/author\\\/mohamed-moallim\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster | Squawka | EN","description":"Leicester City midfielder Dennis Praet has revealed he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal as a youngster.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster","og_description":"Leicester City midfielder Dennis Praet has revealed he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal as a youngster.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/","og_site_name":"Squawka | EN","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SquawkaFootballNews\/","og_image":[{"width":1466,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/20160727\/PA-44751233-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@squawka","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/"},"author":{"name":"Mohamed Moallim","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/46582d436cbfa44c50f11dd9e9e6f22c"},"headline":"Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster","datePublished":"2019-09-20T18:15:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/"},"wordCount":391,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/20160727\/PA-44751233-1.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/","url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/","name":"Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster | Squawka | EN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/20160727\/PA-44751233-1.jpg","datePublished":"2019-09-20T18:15:30+00:00","description":"Leicester City midfielder Dennis Praet has revealed he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal as a youngster.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/20160727\/PA-44751233-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/20160727\/PA-44751233-1.jpg","width":1466,"height":1024},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/leicester-praet-turned-down-arsenal\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Squawka","item":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Leicester midfielder Praet reveals why he turned down Arsenal move as a youngster"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/","name":"Squawka | EN","description":"Football News, Stats, and More...","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/46582d436cbfa44c50f11dd9e9e6f22c","name":"Mohamed Moallim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/745e1c4126cef29da74a30842230f6dd19f94a0b1223e2b89a1863093c4643ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/745e1c4126cef29da74a30842230f6dd19f94a0b1223e2b89a1863093c4643ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/745e1c4126cef29da74a30842230f6dd19f94a0b1223e2b89a1863093c4643ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mohamed Moallim"},"description":"I'm a freelance writer who specialises in the beautiful game. With over ten years of experience, I have been published in the Independent and Daily Mirror and numerous magazines, including FourFourTwo and Champions Journal. I've also appeared as a Dutch football expert on Talksport and BBC Five Live. When I'm not working, you can find me studying all fields of knowledge no matter how obscure.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/iammoallim"],"url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/author\/mohamed-moallim\/"}]}},"yoast_title":"","yoast_description":"Leicester City midfielder Dennis Praet has revealed he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal as a youngster.","yoast_keyword":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1107411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1107411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1107416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1107411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1107411"},{"taxonomy":"news-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-category?post=1107411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}