The Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid saga has been going on for years, but an end might finally be in sight.
For a few days now, Real Madrid have known the amount which Paris Saint-Germain, resigned to losing their star player this season, will accept.
Al-Khelaïfi talks about Mbappe’s new contract: “it is impossible for him to go free”
It is a figure very close to 250 million euros, which the player’s mother, Faiza Lamary, has communicated to the Los Blancos board.
However, they don’t want to pay such a high figure for a player who has one year remaining on his current deal.
The feeling is that the outcome finally seems close, given that Real Madrid can now activate the signing at any time or postpone it until next season, as was their initial idea at the end of May, before Karim Benzema decided to leave for Saudi Arabia.
This is a decisive advantage for the Spanish club. The Parisian side know that if they do not lower their demands by August 31 and do not reach an agreement then Mbappe is prepared to honor his contract and leave after June 30, 2024, free without them receiving a single euro.
PSG are asking for 250m euros
Despite the leaks of the last few days, with the huge offer from Al-Hilal that the player did not even consider, PSG understand they are at something of a dead end after leaving him out of their pre-season tour to Japan, as this measure of pressure has not had the slightest effect.
Nobody wants to admit it in public, but it is clear that a transfer now is the best solution for all parties because Mbappe is adamant that he has only two options: stay in Paris for the remaining year or be transferred to Real Madrid.
That is why Nasser Al-Khelaifi is trying to get a transfer figure that will allow him to claim to have achieved the most expensive transfer in the history of football, surpassing the 222m euros that they themselves paid Barcelona for Neymar.
If they get it, they will also boast that they have done it for a player who has only one year left on his contract, although that would only be a half-truth because the 225m euros to 230m euros for which the transfer could probably be completed in the next few days will have to be shared between PSG and Mbappe, as compensation for the striker giving up the 192m euros gross that he has agreed for the remaining season.
An agreement has already been reached between Faiza Lamary and Kia Joorabchian, the Iranian intermediary appointed by the French club to negotiate with the player’s mother and Delphine Verheyden, his lawyer.
The Mbappe saga can be unblocked at any time
Right now, the negotiation, taking place through intermediaries as Real Madrid have at no time been in direct contact with PSG, is in a holding pattern that could be unblocked at any moment.
Nobody wants to give in, but time is on the side of the club, who are waiting for a call from the lawyer or the mother to give them a price they are willing to pay.
Should that amount not suit them, they know Mbappe will agree to spend a year in Paris, a move that would not be easy for him or PSG, but hugely profitable financially for the player.
However, he is aware that he betrayed Real Madrid‘s trust last year and has a clear feeling of having let them down.
Hence, it was only six weeks after his May 21 2022 renewal that they were told that Mbappe was sorry for what he had done.
Unfounded accusations
In any case, the club are unwilling to negotiate directly with Al-Khelaifi after the offence of him not even responding to three formal offers during the last week of August 2021, when the player had one year left on his contract, just as he does now.
As for PSG‘s accusations that Real Madrid have an agreement with the player for 2024, logic suggests that the deal is the same one that club and striker had already agreed on all points in May last year, needing only Mbappe‘s signature.
The only difference with the one that can be signed in the coming days is that this time the French striker will not receive the 130m euro signing-on bonus that had been negotiated when he was set to arrive on a free transfer.
The fact is that all parties will have had to give in on their financial demands if a transfer, that of the best player to the most successful club in the world, which has been a long time coming but seems closer than ever, finally takes place.
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