Real Madrid are taking the same stance over Kylian Mbappe as they did to the club’s record goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mbappe opted to sign a three-year contract extension with Paris Saint-Germain earlier this year, keeping him in the French capital until 2025. It ensured he would not join Real Madrid on a free transfer this summer, as many had expected – bringing an end to a long-running transfer saga.
It comes less than a year after the French club rejected a world record transfer offer from Los Blancos for the striker, whose contract at the Parc des Princes had been due to expire in June this year.
Mbappe was said to have had a verbal agreement in place to join Madrid last season and the striker had previously hinted at a move to the Spanish capital with a recent interview suggesting that he had been open to leaving France. However, that move did not materialise as he committed his future to the French capital.
There have been suggestions that Mbappe believes that he will get another opportunity to move to Real Madrid later in his career with claims in France that his contract at PSG is actually just two years, with the player then holding an option for a third season.
However, Marca outline that Real Madrid’s approach to a future contract for Mbappe is the same one that they used in relation to Ronaldo, who left the club after nine glorious seasons in 2018 to join Juventus – that came after Los Blancos refused to improve the terms of his contract.
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Ronaldo scored a scarcely believable 450 goals in just 438 appearances for Real Madrid – a club record – but was allowed to leave four years ago when relations between the player and the club broke down, partly due to their reluctance to meet his wage demands.
That is the same strategy that the club will use to Mbappe as they will need cave into any player’s wage demands, and particularly those who they believe are open to playing elsewhere. There is also a feeling at the club that they were used to help the Frenchman improve his contract at the Parc des Princes.
The approach from the board at Real Madrid is that if a player has doubts over playing for the club or will prioritise a monetary offer ahead of what they can give them, then they will happily move on and allow those players, regardless of how talented they are, to move elsewhere.
