Kylian Mbappe Tells PSG Of His Plans To Leave The Club
Kylian Mbappe has told Paris Saint Germain that he intends to leave the club at the end of the upcoming season.
unbranded – Sport
It’s (reportedly) official: Kylian Mbappé has signed his new contract with Real Madrid.
Three years after initial transfer rumors swirled and four months after he announced his intentions to leave Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Mbappé, 25, has signed the paperwork for his free transfer to the La Liga club, according to multiple reports.
The formal announcement from Real Madrid will come later this week. The move will become official on July 1, when La Liga’s transfer window opens.
European soccer’s worst-kept secret for months reached its conclusion just one day after Madrid defeated Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League final. The win extended the club’s record to 15 titles in the international club tournament. No other team has more than seven.
“It’s the only little thing that maybe we’re missing, in terms of that clinical 9 (striker),” Madrid star Jude Bellingham said after the final. “If [Mbappé] was to come and give us that, we’d be in a really, really good place. He’d take us to another level.”
Mbappé becomes the third international soccer superstar to leave PSG in the last two years. Argentine forward Lionel Messi joined MLS club Inter Miami last summer after two seasons in Ligue 1, and Brazilian forward Neymar departed for the Saudi Pro League in August after six years with PSG.
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Kylian Mbappé contract
Mbappé signed a contract extension with PSG in May 2022 after initial speculation he would leave for Real Madrid.
According to The Athletic, his current contract nets him €200 million ($215 million) per year and included a 12-month extension clause that only the forward could exercise. The deadline to do so expired at the end of July 2023.
Mbappé declared his intention to leave PSG in February after deciding not to renew his contract with the Ligue 1 club. The club will now lose their star forward as a free transfer once his contract expires June 30 after reportedly rejecting a €200 million transfer offer from Madrid in 2021.
Mbappé’s new contract, according to BBC Sport, is a five-year deal through the 2028-29 season. He will make €15 million ($16.3 million) per season with a €150 million ($163.9 million) signing bonus to be paid out over the next five years.
According to insider Fabrizio Romano, the deal is less money than the club initially offered in 2022 and more in line with what other Madrid stars like Bellingham and Vinicius Junior are paid. It also includes bonuses for winning awards and a percentage of his image rights, Romano says.
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How Mbappé signing will affect Real Madrid
Romano included in his report that many players are very excited by the signing of Mbappé after years of attempts. He said the 2023-24 La Liga champions have long trusted the process by those in charge to keep the club in a position to “win every single competition, to be competitive in every single trophy.”
Real Madrid had other contract news break Sunday as well: Croatian midfielder Luka Modrić will sign a new deal to stick with Los Blancos next week.
“Modrić didn’t care about money, he rejected two big proposals,” Romano wrote in his report.
That statement, if true, further reflects players’ trust in club officials at Real Madrid.
Real Madrid winger Rodrygo sparked speculation about a possible intent to leave the club when he didn’t rule out a departure before the Champions League final. The Brazilian had been linked to Liverpool ahead of the summer transfer window, but he shut down all of those rumors following the game.
“Of course, I’m going to stay at Real Madrid. Why should I leave? I’m staying,” he told reporters.
It isn’t clear how much Modrić’s and Rodrygo’s decisions were affected by the club’s move to bring in Mbappé. It seems it didn’t hurt Madrid’s case, even if Rodrygo may lose playing time following the French striker’s arrival.
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Kylian Mbappé’s last year at PSG
Mbappé scored 27 goals and tallied seven assists in 24 starts for PSG this past season. In all, he scored 256 goals in 308 appearances with the French club over his seven years there.
PSG completed the French domestic treble with a win in Mbappé’s final game with the team: the French Cup final. The club also won Ligue 1 – for a third straight year and sixth time in Mbappé’s seven-year stint – and the French Super Cup during the 2023-24 season.
The French club was not able to advance to the Champions League final this year after it fell to eventual runners-up Dortmund in the semifinal on a 2-0 aggregate score. PSG advanced to its first-ever Champions League final in 2020 but lost to Bayern Munich. The club never won the tournament during Mbappé’s time there.