PSG say Saudi’s Al-Hilal can talk to Kylian Mbappe after world record €300 million bid: source
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French football star Kylian Mbappe has one year left on his contract with PSG, who want him to leave now rather than for nothing next summer.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PARIS – Paris Saint-Germain have given Saudi club Al-Hilal permission to speak to Kylian Mbappe after tabling a world record €300 million (S$443 million) bid, a source close to the negotiations told AFP on Monday.
The Riyadh-based club has made a formal offer by letter, the source said. But such a transfer could only be made with the agreement of Mbappe, who has never expressed an interest in moving to the fast-growing Saudi league.
The current world record transfer is €222 million for Neymar, when he moved from Barcelona to PSG in 2017.
Mbappe, 24, has one year left on his contract with PSG, who want him to leave now rather than for nothing next summer. But he is refusing to sign a new contract
PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has said they will not let Mbappe, the French top flight’s highest scorer for the last five seasons, depart for free in 2024.
The Ligue 1 champions excluded him from their pre-season tour of Asia
The source said Real were among a group of other clubs who had also expressed an interest in Mbappe.
“In the group so far that have expressed their interest there are Manchester United, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Tottenham (Hotspur) and obviously the Saudi club and Real Madrid,” the source said.
On Sunday, Foot Mercato reported Al-Hilal, one of the clubs owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, will offer a contract worth €400 million over two years to Mbappe.
They have already signed midfielder Ruben Neves from Wolves and defender Kalidou Koulibaly from Chelsea.
Sky Sports suggested last week that “Mbappe is prepared to sit out an entire season and leave PSG on a free”.
PSG captain Marquinhos said on Sunday he hoped the club would solve its dispute with Mbappe and welcome the France superstar, who scored a hat-trick in the 2022 World Cup final as Les Bleus lost on penalties to Argentina, back into the squad for the upcoming term.
“He is an exceptional player but it is a decision that was taken over our heads, by the management,” Marquinhos said in Osaka.
He admitted it was a “delicate” subject. “Even in Japan you are here with your questions,” he complained, although new coach Luis Enrique, sitting alongside the Brazilian, escaped without being asked about Mbappe.
“We always want to have top players with us and I hope a decision will be taken to allow him to be with us and help us this season,” Marquinhos added.
Mbappe joined PSG from Monaco in August 2017 and signed a new deal in 2022. That two-year contract includes the option for a third season, to 2025, which the player could take up if he wished. He has declined that option, prompting this saga.
France’s National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) slammed PSG’s treatment of Mbappe last week.
“These players – all of them – must enjoy the same working conditions as the rest of the professional workforce,” the main trade union for professional football players in France said in a lengthy statement on Saturday.
“The UNFP feels it would be useful to remind managers that putting pressure on an employee – via the deterioration of their working conditions, for example – to force them to leave or accept what the employer wants constitutes moral harassment, which French law firmly condemns.”
Meanwhile, Trevor Francis, Britain’s first one-million pound footballer, died aged 69 after a heart attack at his apartment in Spain on Monday. The former striker, who won the European Cup twice with Nottingham Forest, also had 52 caps with England and managed clubs like Sheffield Wednesday.
AFP, REUTERS
