Kylian Mbappe could earn €700m for Saudi club Al-Hilal in a season

The main transfer drama of this summer, in the center of which was the famous striker Kylian Mbappe and PSG, who do not want to let him leave next year as a free agent, has reached its climax. The Parisian club, putting pressure on Mbappe, did not include him in the squad for a trip to a commercial tour, which caused outrage from the French football union, which threatened to sue the Parisians. And the list of contenders for the striker was replenished by the Saudi Al-Hilal, who had already bought a whole group of stars, including Malcolm from Zenit, and raised the price of the player to an astronomical mark of € 300 million.

Among the main information hits for France on Monday was the published L’Equipe and in a number of media resources, the news that the Saudi Al-Hilal made an official offer to PSG for the purchase of its famous striker Kylian Mbappe. Sky Sports claims that the Parisian club “accepted” him, giving potential buyers the go-ahead to negotiate a personal contract with Mbappe.

In this proposal, the French player is struck primarily by the price. Saudi Premier League officials have already taken the summer transfer market by storm with a slew of high-profile signings in Europe’s top leagues.

And Al-Hilal was the most active among them, having managed to invest about €200 million in a whole group of famous football players. It included Kalidou Coulibaly, Ruben Neves, Sergei Milinkovich-Savic and the top scorer of the previous Russian championship Malcolm, who played for Zenit. But for one single 24-year-old Kylian Mbappe, who led the way last season with eight goals, including three in the final lost against the Argentines in the Qatari world championship sniper race, Al-Hilal is ready to pay as much as €300 million.

This is no longer a huge, but simply an astronomical figure. It is twice the price that Kylian Mbappe himself cost PSG in 2017 (that bought it from Monaco under a complex scheme, through the initial loan), and almost € 80 million more than the Parisian club at the same time gave Barcelona for Neymar. The Brazilian’s transfer has since remained a record-breaking cost. Moreover, according to the same Sky Sports, Al-Hilal going stimulate Mbappe with a no less “cosmic” salary – up to € 700 million per season, after which he is guaranteed the opportunity to return to Europe, say, to Real Madrid, with which increased interest in the Frenchman has long been associated.

The message about an attempt to intercept Kylian Mbappe with Al-Hilal can be considered something like the apogee of the main, apparently, transfer story of this summer.

In fact, it matured back in 2022, when, at the end of the next season, the leading publications confidently announced the transition of Mbappe from the Parisian team, which plays in a not very competitive championship and constantly misfires on the outskirts of winning the Champions League, to Real Madrid in the status of a free agent received after the expiration of the contract. However, instead of moving to the Spanish club, Kylian Mbappe unexpectedly announced the signing of a new contract with PSG until 2024. The disruption of the deal, according to various sources, was the result of the extremely energetic actions of the two presidents – club president Nasser al-Khelaifi and French President Emmanuel Macron, Mbappe’s personal fan, who persuaded him to stay at home, as well as, of course, financial incentives. It is believed that PSG, in order to keep the striker, promised him additional payments in the form of bonuses ranging from €150 million to €300 million on an annual salary of €100 million.

The past season did nothing to transform the perception of the PSG-Kylian Mbappe alliance. Personally, for an outstanding striker, he was quite successful, but for his club, he was ordinary: having won the gold of the national championship without brilliance, the Parisians stumbled in the starting round of the Champions League playoffs at Bayern, after which they parted not only with their legend Lionel Messi, who decided to play at the end of his career in the American championship for Inter Miami, but also with coach Christophe Galtier. Instead, the club was headed by former Spain coach Luis Enrique. And representatives of Kylian Mbappe at the end of the season, as it turned out, sent a notification to the PSG management that the striker would not renew his contract in 2024. Various sources interpreted this act in the same way: as a recognition of Mbappe’s keen desire to finally really leave the rich, but not very effective and boring project, and also as a signal for PSG to urgently start negotiations on its sale already within the current transfer window. Otherwise, the club risked again holding out until the moment when Kylian Mbappe turned into a free agent who is free to go anywhere without compensation.

Over the past almost two months, the drama has grown into details. Nasser Al-Khelaifi no longer concealed his annoyance at the behavior of Kylian Mbappe, publicly giving the player something like an ultimatum during the presentation of Luis Enrique: if he wants to stay at PSG for next season, he must renew the contract in advance.

And the list of clubs that respected publications attributed to interest in Kylian Mbappe was no longer limited to Real Madrid and increased significantly, integrating Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham, Liverpool, Inter.

At the same time, none of them seems to have advanced in the negotiations so far that a Mbappe deal could be considered as plausible enough.

But far in putting pressure on the footballer in order to force him to agree to a strategy that is beneficial to the club, PSG has advanced. He did not include him in his squad for a commercial tour of Japan starting this week, drawing outrage from the French Football Union (UNFP). The structure described PSG’s actions as “psychological harassment” against the athlete, recalling that in such ways club management often tries to demoralize players and force them to accept the team’s conditions. Moreover, the UNFP even announced that it was considering going to “civil and criminal courts” in connection with the behavior of the Parisians towards their leader.

It is unlikely, however, that Al-Hilal’s offer, no matter how fantastically generous it may be, clarifies the situation. The same L`Equipe has no doubt that Kylian Mbappe, who, unlike most recruits in the Saudi championship, is not at the age of decline, but at his prime, will ignore him and that the struggle for the opportunity to own him will continue. Moreover, another Spanish giant, Barcelona, ​​is joining it: PSG have already scheduled telephone conversations with Mbappe with it. The Catalans do not currently have as much free money as the same Real Madrid, but, according to L`Equipe, for the sake of Mbappe, she can offload the payroll by selling several players.

Alexey Dospekhov