Real Madrid will announce the signing of Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain this week as a free agent, according to club sources.
Last month, the 25-year-old France international confirmed his decision to leave PSG, where he scored 256 goals, when his contract expires on June 30 because he “needs a new challenge after seven years”.
Mbappe’s move to Madrid is one of the most anticipated transfers in football history and comes after several years of interest from the Spanish club.
Madrid had attempted to sign Mbappe in 2022, when the striker’s previous contract at PSG was due to expire. That year, the striker — who joined PSG from Monaco, initially on a loan agreement, in 2017 — chose to renew at the Parc des Princes.
Mbappe’s extension in 2022 included a 12-month extension clause for the 2024-25 season. However, only Mbappe could trigger that extension, not PSG.
Mbappe renewed with PSG in 2022 (Gao Jing/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Mbappe won 15 trophies across his spell in the France capital, including six Ligue 1 titles. However, Mbappe did not win the Champions League trophy at PSG — losing to Bayern Munich in the club’s only final appearance in 2019-20.
Madrid’s interest in the striker was revived this season, with The Athletic reporting in January that the Frenchman was aware of Madrid’s contractual offer.
As reported by The Athletic, senior board figures informed Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti ahead of his side’s Champions League last-16 first leg against RB Leipzig on February 13 that he could count on the striker from next season.
Mbappe informed PSG in February that he would not execute the optional additional year in his contract through to 2025 that had been included in his 2022 renewal; meaning he would leave the club at the end of the season as a free agent. Days later, the striker confirmed his decision to his PSG teammates and head coach Luis Enrique.
Madrid will announce Mbappe’s signing this week, ahead of this summer’s European Championship. However, the date of the striker’s presentation is less clear due to the player’s international commitments.
How will Mbappe be remembered at PSG?
Analysis from The Athletic’s PSG correspondent Peter Rutzler
Kylian Mbappe is the best French player to have worn the PSG shirt. Arguably, he is their best of all time and perhaps their most important and influential.
Since he signed for Monaco in the summer of 2017, initially on loan and then made permanent for an eye-watering €180million (now £153.8m; $193.7m), PSG have transformed as a club. They are now an internationally recognised brand, a super club, a team who have boasted star players and Mbappe has been at the heart of it.
The relationship between PSG’s fans and their star player has not always been one of doting affection over the past seven years — a product, as L’Equipe outlined last week, of his frequent ‘near departures’. But he has been loved in Paris as a leader for club and country, the locally-born superstar who has become the face of PSG. Off-field matters have not fully diminished the respect, admiration, and indeed affection for this global superstar.
Today, he is arguably the best player in the world and he has left his mark at PSG. He has broken multiple records since he signed, aged 18. He has surpassed all that have gone before him in Paris.
Mbappe winning the World Cup in 2018 (Matthias Hangst via Getty Images)
He has scored the most goals for PSG both domestically and in Europe, as well as the most hat-tricks, the most ‘doubles’ and the most goals in a single game (five). He has helped France win the World Cup during his time at the club, as well as scoring in successive World Cup finals, including one hat-trick, has won the tournament’s Golden Boot, and has gone on to become France captain. He is the most prolific and consistent goalscorer the French league has seen since Jean-Pierre Papin was running riot for Marseille in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
He received the Ligue 1 Golden Boot award six times in a row — no player has done that before.
While PSG were ahead of schedule with their Champions League run this season, Mbappe will still leave without winning the biggest prize in club football — and that will always be a disappointment to him. But he leaves as probably the most significant player in the club’s history.
(Aurelien Meunier – PSG/PSG via Getty Images)
Read the full article here