PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has opened up on why he turned down Real Madrid’s mouth-watering €180m for Kylian Mbappe.
The 23-year-old France international had been widely expected to leave the Ligue 1 champions for Real at the end of the season upon the expiry of his existing deal on June 30.
But he opted to sign a new three-year contract with the Paris club.
Al-Khelaifi made the claim speaking with Marca.
He said, “I have great respect for Real Madrid as a club, they’re a great club, but Kylian has never decided to renew for the money, that’s the first thing. Madrid’s offer was better than ours. He is our player and he had other clubs in England as well as Madrid, but he chose PSG and we didn’t talk to him or his family about money until the last moment. Kylian was above all interested in the project, in football and sport.
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“He is Parisian, he is French, and he wanted to stay here to represent his city and his country, his club, and it is not fair what has been said about him. For them, money is not the most important thing, they want to win and they want a sporting project.
“I don’t know what Madrid says, whether it was days or months ago. I know 18 months ago that Mbappe wanted to stay. I heard that Madrid said he wanted to play for Madrid, but it wasn’t true. We are talking now about Madrid’s latest offer, but in the summer they made an offer of 170 and 180 million [euros]. That means that Madrid’s offer, plus his salary, was already better than ours, as it is now.
“I turned down 180 [million euros] and they told me I was crazy, people I trusted, because he could leave for free, but I did it because I was sure Kylian was going to stay because I know him and his family well, I know what he wants.
“Kylian is very serious, professional, and he wants to play and win, he doesn’t care about money. I understand that Madrid are disappointed, but it’s not fair to say that about Mbappe.”
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COMMENTS
But if you don’t win the CL in the next 2 season into his 3 years contract, then you will have to start another renewal issues, the 180 Real offered and his salaries, with no CL trophy, that’s still gonna be a big loss to PSG I think.