The name of Frenchman Kylian Mbappé once again appears in the focus of Real Madrid. Already in February, before a hypothetical crossing in the Champions League, PSG’s number 7 opens the curtain again on a work without an official outcome, but which brightens the face and brings smiles to the Valdebebas offices.
Le Parisien says this Thursday that “Madrid is the other club in his heart.” Between the nostalgia of some and the boredom and fatigue of others, in Paris it was already clear that he will no longer play for PSG. His decision to leave the Parc des Princes, free, at the end of this season, brings the white team and the French footballer closer together again. A story that began in 2017 and could end in 2024.
Seven years ago, Real Madrid set its sights on a young footballer born in the town of Bondy, located in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, northeast of Paris, who was dazzling at Monaco.
Just turned 19 years old and a meteoric emergence. In Ligue 1 and in the Champions League. 28 goals and 14 assists in 46 games. Six of these goals in nine ‘Champions’ games, all of them in qualifying rounds, which took Monaco to the semi-finals, where they lost against Juventus.
Real Madrid followed him closely and negotiated the arrival to the capital of Spain of a footballer who, at the age of 14 – in 2012 – visited Valdebebas and met his idol, the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, whose posters he had wallpapered in his room. His parents.
However, Mbappé and his entourage decided to return home and sign for Paris Saint-Germain, which promised to be, along with the Brazilian Neymar Junior, head of the project; while Real Madrid won the ‘Champions’ year after year with the ‘BBC’ -Bale, Benzema and Cristiano- starting and an emerging Marco Asensio.
He did not see his place as indisputable and decided to pack his bags for Paris. He signed a star contract and, since then, his name and that of Real Madrid have always been linked.
Is the fifth time lucky?
Without success in 2017, Real Madrid saw the possibility of signing Mbappé in 2021. Until the last day of the market. The outcome did not come until August 31, when Paris Saint-Germain rejected 200 million euros for their star despite having only one more year on his contract.
What’s more, PSG did not even respond to the white team’s proposal. And this set a precedent in the offices of a Real Madrid that nine months later suffered another disappointment, when everything seemed aimed at seeing Mbappé in the capital of Spain.
Of course, in 2022, the soap opera was resolved ahead of time. In May, by surprise, a few days before Real Madrid played the final of the ‘Champions’, on a path in which they eliminated Mbappé in the round of 16, in a visit by the Frenchman to the Santiago Bernabéu in which he left gestures , like looking in amazement at the stadium works, to let yourself be loved.
However, in May he renewed his contract with PSG until 2025 instead of joining the white team as a free agent.
A date, 2025, that seemed to separate the paths of Mbappé and Real Madrid for a time, but that was not the case. In reality, the forward signed until 2024, with the option to renew one more season. He did not want to do it last summer and Real Madrid’s interest was reactivated.
What’s more, the French club warned him that if he did not renew, it would open the door for him to leave the club. And he took him away from training with the group… but he ended up staying one more year. And without signing a new renewal or activating its clause until 2025.
Meanwhile, from the PSG offices, they got rid of Messi and Neymar and gave him, in case there was any doubt, the keys to the team. A strategy to try to convince him, again, at the last minute.
Again, Mbappé
But this 2024 has not been like that. The French press cheered up the afternoon of the newsrooms by announcing that Mbappé’s decision is firm: he is leaving PSG at the end of the season, for free, and this was communicated to the club’s president, the Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.
A piece of news that immediately reactivated another: Real Madrid’s interest in signing the Frenchman.
The club’s spokespersons have always denied the major. Ancelotti with a resounding “he is a player for another team”, Florentino Pérez after winning the Spanish Super Cup with a “this is not the time to talk about Mbappé”… and even, on November 4, a statement on the club’s website.
“Given the information recently issued and published by different media outlets, in which there is speculation about alleged negotiations between the player Kylian Mbappé and our club, Real Madrid C.F. would like to state that this information is flatly false and that no such negotiations have occurred. negotiations with a player who belongs to PSG,” the white team published.
Starting today, a new scenario opens. The announcement that Madrid was waiting for to underpin its strategy. The same one that the galacticos of yesteryear used to leave their clubs and land at the Bernabéu.
Of course, in the Real Madrid locker room they have responded about Mbappé on rare occasions. As was the case of his compatriot Aurelíen Tchouaméni after beating Leipzig last Tuesday in ‘Champions’
“Mbappé to Real Madrid? He did not tell me anything. And even if he knew, he wouldn’t have told you. We talked about it in the locker room because it is an important topic. We hope that things will calm down in the coming weeks,” he said on Canal Francia.
A decision by Mbappé that once again reactivates Real Madrid’s interest in the French footballer. For the fourth consecutive year and with an outcome that the world of football hopes will be resolved soon
