Kylian Mbappe has been frozen out of the PSG first-team and will not play until his contract runs out next summer; Mbappe felt PSG would be signing Robert Lewandowski and Bernardo Silva when he signed his current deal last year; Mbappe rejected a £258m move to Al-Hilal
As a Madrid fan who hasn’t really followed in 10 years, could you explain a bit more? Before I ditched Reddit, my understanding was Madrid was trying very hard to sign Mbappe this year.
What’s going on with their financial situation, and why would Mbappe refuse to leave?
But also note, Madrid are in a massive amount of debt. I can't remember the name, but the previous King liked to write-off their debt and so a certain way of life was established in Spain. Times change and they no longer have that debt being written off every so often, however they kept spending more than they were making and eventually accrued just shy of 1 billion debt. This is one of the reasons they pushed for the Super League, because if the Financial Fair Play rules were ever applied properly, they'd be chucked out of everything.
Anyway long story short, Madrid and Mbappé thought he could join them this summer, but PSG want more than they anticipated and Madrid are unwilling to offload talent to make it happen. Now he can either go to Saudi Arabia or Manchester City and he prefers to wait the extra year.
Usually when someone makes a public statement that they won't be doing something under any circumstances, that means they'll be announcing that they are doing that thing in the next week or two.
Eh, good for him. The market supports guaranteed contracts for top players, so this is a known business risk for the clubs. Same as with Bale. Their skills have a shelf-life, and the clubs are ruthless, so I generally understand when players use the leverage they have.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out if he does stay in Paris. I don't believe he's going to be benched for the whole season if he stays, but I think they might try.
I'm happy my club is finally showing some teeth. Players that are only in for the money should just leave, we need to prioritise team spirit above individual talent. So yes Mbappe is the best player in the world and a smart guy, but he needs to go.
I'm sure he will be cleverly prepared to paint the situation in his advantage but deep down we all know he's only staying because he will get a huge signing bonus if he goes to Real Madrid next year.