Real Madrid are waiting to see whether Paris Saint-Germain will accept their new offer of €170m (£146m) for Kylian Mbappé as the Spanish giants step up their pursuit of the France forward.
Having seen their initial bid of €160m rejected this week after the PSG sporting director, Leonardo, said the offer was “not sufficient”, Madrid have returned with what they see as their final offer for a player whose contract expires at the end of this season.
Mbappé has already indicated that he would like to move to La Liga having turned down more than three different proposals from PSG to extend his deal over recent months. It is understood that Madrid have offered him a six-year contract, with the 22-year-old keen to leave the Parc des Princes despite the arrival of Lionel Messi, who is expected to make his PSG debut this weekend at Reims.
“Kylian Mbappé feels like leaving, this seems clear to me,” said Leonardo on Wednesday. “Our goal is to extend and keep him. If a player wants to leave it must be under our terms. This applies not just to Kylian but to all players. It seems like a strategy to get a no from us, to show they’ve tried everything and to wait to get Kylian for free.”
He added: “With him, we talked a lot, he always told us the same things. He always promised he wouldn’t leave the club [for] free. It [Real’s bid] is less than we paid for him. But it’s the way Real Madrid does it that we don’t like.”
Mbappé has been linked with a move to Madrid for several months despite the Spanish club suffering an estimated €300m in losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. But in their accounts for last season published in July, Real said: “Current forecasts suggest that recovery to the pre-pandemic situation will not be immediate. Therefore, the club will continue with the cost-containment efforts it has made so far.”
Mbappé joined PSG from Monaco in 2017, on loan initially and then permanently a year later in a deal valued at €180m. He has scored 133 goals in just 174 games for the club in all competitions.
