Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's former agent Yvan Le Mee has made it clear the Borussia Dortmund star left AC Milan because he felt he was not treated right.
The 26-year-old joined the Italian club's academy in January 2007, but left San Siro before breaking into the first team.
He enjoyed loan spells with Dijon, Lille, Monaco and Saint-Etienne before eventually joining the latter on a permanent deal in 2011.
However, Le Mee says things could have gone differently had his former youth coaches at Milan not favoured Italian youngsters over Aubameyang.
"Aubameyang was scoring some amazing goals for Milan, but we realised that he was not playing much with Milan's Primavera [youth] team because their coach favoured Italian players over him and kept Auba out of the team," Le Mee told Le 10 Sport.
"At that time, we got in touch with Dijon over a transfer. After pushing really hard for six months, Milan eventually accepted a loan offer from Dijon.
"And at Dijon, he scored eight goals and provided six more at the tender age of 19. How many players of that age have achieved that?"
Since leaving Milan Aubameyang has not looked back, the Gabon international in sublime form again this campaign with 35 goals in all competitions, and Le Mee feels he is arguably one of the best strikers in the world.
"Right now, Aubameyang is the fifth-best attacker in the world for me," he added.
"Only [Lionel] Messi, [Luis] Suarez, Neymar and [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic are better than him. He is better than [Robert] Lewandowski and [Sergio] Aguero.
"He is a good person, someone who works really hard. Plus he has always had his technical skills.
"He got where he is now because of his hard work. But you don't reach this level without being very talented."
