Transfer news expert Fabrizio Romano has spoken exclusively to CaughtOffside‘s The Debrief Podcast to explain how it finally came to be that Kylian Mbappe decided to leave Paris Saint-Germain, with Real Madrid looking highly likely to be his next destination.
Mbappe will be out of contract with PSG this summer, and it seems he’s now only negotiating with Real Madrid as he prepares to become a free agent.
The France international certainly seems like the dream ‘Galactico’ signing that Los Blancos are famed for, and it will be interesting to see how he lives up to the hype once he does complete a move to the Bernabeu.
Romano insists nothing has been signed just yet, so it’s not formally completed, but it remains widely expected that Mbappe will finally end up becoming a Madrid player, as it seems he came to the decision in the last few weeks that he wanted to try a new challenge after a long and successful spell with PSG.
However, Mbappe’s difficulties in Paris started last year when he found himself out of Luis Enrique’s squad for a period.
Romano explained: “I would say around November-December a decision was made. Even last summer the situation was really complicated, the player was not travelling for pre-season and it was a tense situation. In January, Mbappe took some time to communicate with his camp and then inform Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
“I think he felt it was time for him to try something different – he felt it was time for a new league, new city, new project, and this is why Mbappe wants to do something different after a long time at Paris Saint-Germain.
“At the moment Mbappe is only negotiating with Real Madrid, I’m not aware of anything with any other clubs. Of course as a free agent it remains open, but it seems very clear that Real Madrid is the clear direction of this deal.”
Not since the era of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have we really had a superstar of this calibre playing for one of La Liga’s big two, so it will be exciting to see what Mbappe can do with this move to Spain.
The 25-year-old has had a great career so far, but his critics might argue he’s not quite challenged himself enough, so this could be the move that really launches his career in terms of becoming regarded as one of the modern greats of the game.