Kylian Mbappe will leave Paris Saint-Germain seven years after joining the club.
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One of the world’s biggest soccer stars will be on the move this summer. The Athletic, who cites anonymous sources, is reporting that Kylian Mbappé has told Paris Saint-Germain that he will depart the French club this summer.
The 25-year-old forward is hot property with Real Madrid, Liverpool and Arsenal among the teams to be linked to him in recent months. Now, after several years of transfer saga, he looks to have told his current team that he will leave.
The Athletic says that Mbappé has communicated his decision to leave at the end of his contract this summer, though the terms are yet to be fully agreed and an announcement is expected before the end of his contract on June 30th.
Mbappé shocked the world in 2022 when he put pen to paper on a new contract with PSG despite months of speculation linking him with a move to Real Madrid. His contract gave him a handsome sum of €200 million ($215 million) per season to play for the Parisian club.
That deal is set to expire this summer, but despite declaring his intention to leave, he could still sign an extended deal. That is owing to the significant sum which Mbappé would be able to claim with loyalty bonuses by extending his contract.
Journalist Ben Jacobs claims that PSG would have to fork out between €70 million ($75.3 million) and €80 million ($86.1 million) should he extend his deal. Instead, Mbappé can leave on a free transfer, with his suitors likely to pay a substantial signing-on fee.
Instead, he could extend his deal in Paris, in order to then allow the Ligue 1 club to request a transfer fee from his next club. Mbappé has a 12-month extension clause option in his contract, but only he can activate it. As such, the terms may still require some negotiations.
Who will sign Kylian Mbappé?
The favorites to sign Mbappé will almost certainly be Real Madrid. The Athletic’s report on Mbappé’s exit includes a claim that the Spanish club’s president Florentino Pérez has been in direct contact with the attacker and has pushed for the move.
Spanish newspaper MARCA has recognized the reports and claims that negotiations are still ongoing over a move, which has Real Madrid as his most likely destination.
The report comes only a week after MARCA stated that Real Madrid was keen to avoid a repeat of previous summers, where Mbappé delayed a decision on his future until the end of the season. Now, his mind has been made up to depart Paris.
The Spanish side are currently leading the LALIGA standings and are still in contention in the UEFA Champions League, where they will be hoping to add to their silverware collection having won the Spanish Super Cup in January.
Mbappé joined PSG in the summer of 2017 for €180 million ($193.7 million) from AS Monaco, and he went on to score 243 goals in 290 games since then. He has won five Ligue 1 titles during his six-and-a-half years at the club, and was once runner-up in the UEFA Champions League.