Less than a month after Paris Saint-Germain made Neymar the most expensive player of all time, they’re ready to repeat the trick with Kylian Mbappe.
The 18-year-old firmly established himself as a superstar in the making last season, scoring 26 goals and providing 14 assists in 44 appearances in all competitions for Monaco..
In turn, it’s no surprise that he’s been the most in-demand player in Europe this summer, with a whole host of European giants linked with a swoop for him.
From Monaco’s perspective, they’ve seen their Ligue 1 title-winning squad ripped apart this summer, and losing Mbappe would be the biggest blow yet.
However, according to The Times, it appears as though they’re going to lose him, and to make matters worse it’s direct rivals PSG who are ready to snap him up for a transfer fee that will exceed a whopping £200m.
It’s claimed that they’ll spend an initial £173m on the French international, with various performance-related bonuses then taking the final figure beyond £200m, and thus surpassing the fee they spent on Neymar last month.
Should the move go through, it’s a major blow to both Real Madrid and Manchester City, with both clubs explicitly mentioned in the report as being interested in the youngster.
It now seems as though they’ve missed out as PSG continue to splash out big money on strengthening their squad, and they’ll undoubtedly have one of the most feared attacking line-ups in Europe with Edinson Cavani likely to compliment Mbappe and Neymar.