Fabrizio Romano insists there was never anything concrete in terms of Manchester United targeting Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe if Sheikh Jassim had been successful in purchasing the club.
Writing in today’s edition of his Daily Briefing column, Romano discussed a range of issues involving the Man Utd ownership, including what went wrong with Sheikh Jassim’s efforts to purchase the club from the Glazer family.
Mbappe was linked as a target for the Red Devils if they ended up under Qatari ownership, but Romano insists the takeover was never even that close, so he doesn’t see there being much to this story.
The France international was also eager to stay at PSG this summer, so it seems unlikely that United ever had much of a chance to sign him this year anyway.
“I can also say that, despite links with Kylian Mbappe, it’s normal to have rumours like this when new owners could be coming in, but there was nothing concrete,” Romano said.
“For one thing, the takeover was never that close. Mbappe was also very clear in the summer that he wanted to stay at PSG for at least one more season. Still, I can say that Sheikh Jassim wanted to make a star signing in the summer, though I have no confirmation that Mbappe was on his list.”
Romano added that it’s now on Mbappe to respond to PSG’s approaches to sign a new contract at the Parc des Princes, with no update yet on whether or not he’ll do so.
He said: “Despite what’s been reported elsewhere, I have no news at all on Mbappe and an imminent contract offer from PSG.
“It seems pretty obvious that PSG have been offering him a new deal for a long time, they spent years insisting on extending the contract, so it’s on Mbappe now, not on PSG. And there’s no update yet on Mbappe’s side, we will see in the next weeks/months.”