The Saudi League doesn’t stop! Al-Hilal makes the biggest proposal in football history to have Kylian Mbappé on their team.
Index
Mbappé’s situation
It’s not today that Kylian Mbappé’s situation with Paris Saint-Germain has been considered, at the very least, complicated.
Since his contract renewal in May 2022, the French club has promised the world to the superstar to convince him to stay in Paris.
At this time, Real Madrid was still pursuing Mbappé. Thus, PSG knew they would have to open their coffers if they wanted to keep a player of this level in their squad.
In this way, they shelled out the absurd amount of €300 million, according to EuroSport, only in signing bonuses and an annual salary of €100 million, extending his contract until June 2024, and triggering the automatic clause until 2025.
Image: PA/Daily Mail
But that’s not all. Other benefits were reportedly offered to the Frenchman, although there has been no official statement from the club or Mbappé regarding this.
Kylian would have his status elevated within the club. A team that already had two of the three best players of the 2010s, Messi and Neymar, would have to suppress their prominence and hand it over to Mbappé.
First, the issue of penalties. Neymar is undeniably the best penalty taker in the world for some time now. Naturally, he would be the team’s official penalty taker. However, this idea didn’t sit well with Mbappé, who constantly asked to take the team’s penalties, even missing some of them.
Furthermore, we began to notice Mbappé’s increasing desire for goals, but not in the way one would expect. In several instances, Neymar and Messi were in much better positions to score. Despite this, Kylian chose to go it alone and finish the play himself, resulting in many missed opportunities.
The numbers speak for themselves; by September 2022, Neymar and Messi had a total of 14 assists, many of them to Mbappé. However, he hadn’t assisted his teammates on any occasion.
As the 2022/23 season came to an end, Real Madrid’s pursuit of Kylian Mbappé continued. As expected, the young Frenchman was swayed by the possibility of joining the greatest team in history, leaving behind PSG, which had repeatedly failed in the Champions League, a major factor influencing Mbappé’s desire for a change of scenery.
Consequently, at the end of the European season, Mbappé chose not to trigger his automatic renewal clause. Subsequently, rumors about the player’s destination started circulating.
Kylian and his staff tried to ease the situation, stating that the athlete wanted to maintain his contractual bond.
PSG, on the other hand, grew tired of the ongoing games and speculations. Therefore, on Friday, July 21, 2023, they took drastic action. Realizing the potential move of Mbappé to wait for the contract to expire and join Real Madrid for free, the French club did the opposite of what they had been doing, which was trying to hold onto the player at all costs.
In a bold move, Mbappé, one of the best players, if not the best of the present time, was put on the transfer list and separated from the squad, training separately.
The club’s stance is entirely understandable. It is evident that there is a coordinated effort between PSG’s management and their fans to prioritize the club above any player’s interest. Thus, the fans called for the departure of Neymar and Messi.
The management, noticing Kylian Mbappé’s posture, made this bold move not only to gain a financial return but also to send an important message to the team’s players.
Image: PSG Talk
The Proposals
It is speculated that five clubs are seriously interested in Kylian Mbappé, having made inquiries and potential offers.
Among them are Chelsea, Tottenham, Inter Milan, Barcelona, and Manchester United.
Real Madrid, on the other hand, notably one of the parties involved in all this confusion, has not made any formal offer to the striker, as there is a possibility that Kylian Mbappé and the Merengues have everything settled for the following year, in which the player would join Real Madrid for free.
But the offer that shocked the football world in the last hours came from Al-Hilal. We know that Saudi Arabia is trying to make its league competitive, but the values presented are exorbitant even for the Saudi oil magnates.
Al-Hilal is said to have offered PSG nothing less than €300 million and annual earnings of €200 million, which would be the most expensive transfer in football history.
However, Mbappé knows very well that he is the biggest icon of this generation. As a champion of the 2018 World Cup and a finalist in 2022, scoring a historic hat-trick in the final, he is well aware of what he is capable of.
He only lacks a Champions League title on his resume, combined with the coveted Ballon d’Or, to elevate him to the status of the greatest player of a generation and, why not, the greatest player in the history of France.
For these and other reasons, he declined Al-Hilal’s advances.
Who will be able to pay what PSG wants for Mbappé? Will he go to another club other than Real Madrid? Will the Merengues pay any amount for the superstar? Will he remain sidelined until the end of his contract?
There are many questions, but only time will bring us an answer. And for you, what do you think he should do?
Image: Getty Images/Al-Hilal
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Written by Vitor F L Miller.
