Wednesday, February 21, 2024, 00:13 | Updated 07:27h.
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The paths of Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid are doomed to cross this coming summer, unless there is a radical turn of events. The French star returned to the scene at the end of last spring by publicly showing his divorce from PSG, to reopen the umpteenth season of the soap opera between the Bondy prodigy and the club chaired by Florentino Pérez. His arrival was on the table, and as in previous courses, it did not materialize either. An endless story of winks, love and betrayals that this time already has the final chapter, and it seems a happy one, for the fans of the Chamartín club after the comings and goings of the French player, whom the Madrid boss even accused of submitting to political pressure after reaching an agreement in principle to recruit him to the Bernabéu in 2022.
The French star has once again shaken up the market after learning that the expiration date of his commitment to the Parisian team is June 30, 2024. The longest courtship that the world of football has experienced in recent times will end this summer market after the player announced a few days ago that he would leave PSG, also asking Nasser Al Khelaifi not to present him with any new renewal offer. He wasn’t going to accept it. The reason was that he had already chosen Real Madrid as his club for the next five seasons, as Paris had long suspected.
A yes from Real Madrid
It is said that his dream was to wear white since he was a child. “At the age of 10 we told him that we were going to give him tickets to Real”, recalls Alain Mboma, an intimate of the player’s family, on L’Équipe TV. Little Kylian responded: “Someday I will be the one to take you to see Real Madrid.”
The path of his idols Zidane and Cristiano
In 2012, about to turn 14, dressed in a Chamartín team jacket, he visited Valdebebas, invited by Zinedine Zidane himself, who was then part of the club’s management, where he was photographed with his idol Cristiano Ronaldo.
At that time, Mbappé was training as a footballer at the prestigious Clairefontaine academy, where the French Federation leaves room only for the best footballer projects in the French country. This situation and his refusal to sign for Real Madrid made it easier for Kylian Mbappé to continue his career in the French football environment, achieving his first major transfer to Monaco.
Another refusal to wear white
Since Mbappé showed his head in that team that amazed Europe at the age of 16, Madrid has been attentive to his evolution. In his debut season in the top continental competition he was the sixth highest scorer, with six goals, and was included in the ideal team and as one of the revelation players. He finished the season in Ligue 1 with fifteen goals in twenty-nine games that contributed decisively to winning the title seventeen years later.
In the summer of 2017, another option to play for the white club was frustrated, but they could not guarantee him ownership in a project that would achieve its second consecutive Champions League and that the following season would increase the historical record to three in a row. His father presented the whites with an offer from PSG that doubled what he offered from the capital and the attacker ended up on the banks of the Eiffel Tower.
Hit on Al-Khelaifi’s table
Al-Khelaifi, the man who resurrected PSG with his petrodollars, won the first duel of a long career due to the footballer’s youth and his childhood as a white fan. His name was always present in the Castellana environment, watching how the attacker crashed again and again against the Champions League, even though with his national team he was able to win a World Cup.
In 2021, siren songs arrived and there was talk, once again, of an imminent signing. In the end, the Parisians were scared and did not accept a last offer of 200 million euros for a footballer whose contract expires a year later. The numbers have danced continuously in a soap opera that has gone through every episode imaginable.
State Question
In 2022, Real Madrid fans were blindly confident that they would land at the Bernabéu. They knew that his contract was ending, hence the decision only depended exclusively on what the French international wanted. The attacker rejected all renewal offers until political pressure from Qatar and France, together with the succulent financial offers from PSG, changed the paradigm. A new refusal to stop in Chamartín and final renewal with the Gauls. The figures: 83 million euros annually until 2024 and a bonus in case of renewal of 125 million euros.
The rope is tightened with PSG
Top scorer in PSG history, with 244 goals in 291 games, the French star signed his last contract in May 2022, just a week before the Champions League final match between Real Madrid and Liverpool at the Stade from France.
From that moment on, relations became a little more complicated every day, to the point that the so-called ‘Mbappé case’ marked not only the beginning of the PSG season and Luis Enrique’s first steps as coach of the Parisian team but also the summer market until the last minute.
The ‘Mbappé bomb’ is deactivated
The longest soap opera in football history took another 180-degree turn on June 12. That Monday, a letter that Mbappé signed eleven months earlier came to the fore. In it, he conveyed to PSG his refusal to activate the additional year of contract that was contemplated in the agreement spread with great fanfare that festive day of May 21, 2022 at the Parc des Princes. Eleven days later, he sent another letter to delve into the reasons for a resolution that placed, as on this last occasion, June 30, 2024 as the final day of his relationship with the city of light club. Since then, the two parties fought a war that could dynamit the ecosystem of the beautiful sport.
The complicated relationship between the Bondy star and the club that has dominated France for the last five seasons had a very eventful summer with arguments, departures, punishments and subsequent pardons. The poker game ended with the market closing and again the winning hand went the same way. The white fan was once again left with honey on his lips and knowing that the Frenchman loves to ‘play’ with the white team.
Final chapter
At the beginning of February 2024, the French soccer megastar Kylian Mbappé requested the protection of the trademark of his surname and his usual gesture with his arms crossed when celebrating his goals to operate commercially in a varied range of sectors in the market that form the 27 countries of the EU. His time at PSG seems to have ended after informing the club that he would leave at the end of this football season.
The ‘Mbappé case’ enters its final phase and the only thing missing is officiality from the player about a destiny that looks whiter than ever. All roads lead to Real Madrid since the news broke on February 15 about the striker’s decision to turn his career around with the aim of achieving the sporting achievements that he has not been able to achieve during the seven seasons he has been wearing. the PSG shirt and place yourself at the epicenter of the football industry.
In Valdebebas they are already breathing easy, aware that the signing of Mbappé is a fact. The player and the club have maintained frequent contact over the last few weeks and everything was precipitated once the world champion with France confirmed to the Real Madrid officials his desire to play in Chamartín and conveyed his decision to Al-Khelaifi. to leave the Parc des Princes.
Despite the rudeness he made to Real Madrid in May 2022, Florentino Pérez was always clear that Mbappé had to be the jewel in the crown at the inauguration of the new Santiago Bernabéu and the main reference for a team full of figures like Bellingham or Vinicius. It was a strategic signing to which Real Madrid has subordinated a good part of its sporting and economic planning in recent years. Hence, for example, last summer Carlo Ancelotti’s demands to recruit a top-level striker like Harry Kane fell on deaf ears. The arrival of Mbappé will mean a leap in quality on the pitch and a tremendous boost in the marketing section.
Images
AFP/Sacha Shuerman and Franck Fife, EFE, EP, Instagram
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2024-02-21 06:27:36
#Mbappé #Real #Madrid #endless #story #winks #love #betrayals #leaving #PSG
