The most stupid transfer saga of all time
Signing Kylian Mbappé has been Real Madrid’s sole obsession for the best part of two years. Real Madrid’s transfer strategy – signing basically nobody, letting stalwarts such as Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane leave, and even selling young prospects like Achraf Hakimi – has all been done with one goal in mind: buyingMbappé.
The 22-year-old World Cup winner has just one year left on his contract and despite numerous attempts from PSG to tie him down on a new deal, Mbappé has refused, because it’s also been his main goal since childhood to play for Real Madrid.
Bearing all that in mind, you’d think that a world record bid for a player who becomes available on a free next summer would be enough to make the move happen. Incorrect.
Real Madrid have submitted two official bids for Mbappé in the past couple of weeks, the latest of which was in the region of €180m including add-ons. PSG knocked them both back.
It then broke on Monday night that he was more likely to stay at PSG after Real Madrid got frustrated with unproductive talks and walked away from the deal.
But more news filtered in on deadline day, with Sky Sports’ Kaveh Solhekol reporting that Madrid were prepared to pay €220 million for the forward on deadline day, but even that was not enough to persuade PSG to change their stance.
🚨 BREAKING 🚨
⚪️ Real Madrid were prepared to pay €220m for Kylian Mbappe.
❌ PSG stalled on the deal and Los Blancos walked away.
📝 Real Madrid will sign the striker on a pre-contract deal in January.
[via @SkyKaveh]#DeadlineDay pic.twitter.com/GAYFzvIUUe
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) August 31, 2021
This might look like lunacy from PSG, but when you are effectively funded by a nation state and your chairman sits high on the board at UEFA, money is of little value compared to the brand power that comes from having the world’s best young player in your squad.
Now, it looks almost certain that Mbappé will negotiate a pre-contract with Real Madrid in January and join Los Blancos next summer for free.
