Inside Kylian Mbappe transfer reversal as desperate PSG offer brings ‘pain’ to Real Madrid

The Frenchman is close to announcing the decision on his future and whether he will renew at Paris Saint-Germain or join Real Madrid as a free agent

The conclusion of football’s year-long transfer saga is just days away and Kylian Mbappe is set to announce his future decision.

Widespread reports on Friday claimed that Mbappe will avoid the opportunity to join Real Madrid and renew his contract at Paris Saint-Germain. It comes less than a year after the French club rejected a world-record transfer offer from Los Blancos for the forward, whose contract at the Parc des Princes expires on June 30.

Earlier this week, the forward said the decision on his future would be announced ‘in a few days’ with an announcement imminent. Mbappe is believed to have already made his decision but is yet to reveal it to any club.

PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino added further intrigue to the situation at his press conference on Friday: “I don’t know his decision,” explained the Argentine. “It’s something personal between Kylian Mbappe and the club. I may have an idea – but it’s up to Kylian and the club to communicate about it.”

The signs that Mbappe will turn Madrid down and stay in the French capital will come as a shock after he struck a verbal agreement to join Real Madrid earlier this season. As reported by Marca, absolute certainty about the player’s desire to join the Santiago Bernabeu is now gone and the overwhelming feeling is that of ‘fear’ in the Spanish capital.

The striker has recently hinted at a move to Real Madrid, while a recent interview indicated he is ready to leave France. The Frenchman recently faced the Spanish giants in the last 16 of this season’s Champions League when he scored a last-minute winner in the first-leg win for Mauricio Pochettino’s side. He also scored in the return leg in Madrid, scoring the opening goal before a sensational Karim Benzema hat-trick ensured PSG suffered more European heartbreak.

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There have been suggestions that PSG are ready to make the 23-year-old their highest-paid player by offering him improved terms on Lionel Messi and Neymar’s respective deals. Meanwhile, multiple reports suggest that French President Emmanuel Macron has tried to persuade Mbappe – who he is friends with – to stay in Paris and reject the approach from the Spanish capital.

This political pressure has done much to muddy the waters as Mbappe is now unsafe to leave the Parc des Princes. As Marca wrote, this is not only coming from France but also from Doha, Qatar – who were desperate not to lose the star fortune of their European marquee club, which is taking place just months before the World Cup in the Middle East for the first time.

Most interestingly, however, Mbappe had a condition of staying at PSG which was crucial for him if he stayed at the club. He demanded he have an influential voice in the club’s sporting direction, including a say in who the club’s manager and sporting director is, along with potential new players.

Mbappe visited the Spanish capital last week and met with Madrid’s general manager Jose Angel Sanchez, who canceled other scheduled appointments with agents, to meet with the striker on Monday and Tuesday.

Mbappe said on Sunday night as he accepted his third consecutive Ligue 1 Player of the Year award: “I will officially announce my decision on the future before I join the France national team in June. It’s a matter of days before it’s official. He went on to say that his decision “will be known very soon, it’s almost done. My decision is made, yeah, almost.”

It will end one of the longest-running transfer sagas, which has seen both Madrid and PSG play a high-stakes poker game, with the French club’s rejection of last summer’s world-record bid being a brave attempt to expose their bluff and sign the striker to extend his stay in Parc des Princes. Such a move was long thought to have failed, but now Real Madrid are sweating at the announcement.