Despite the fact that Jürgen Klopp has said Liverpool FC can’t afford him, rumors continue to circulate that Kylian Mbappé could leave Paris Saint-Germain and sign for the Premier League leaders this summer.
The latest gossip comes from the notoriously unreliable Sun where they speculate that Real Madrid will try to sign Sadio Mané from Liverpool for around €170 million.
With that influx of cash and a huge hole in their squad, the British tabloid predicts Liverpool will go all-in for Mbappé with the Reds needing to add another €100 million to the proceeds from the Mané sale just to get PSG to answer their phone.
As if that’s not a ridiculous enough proposition, Mbappé currently earns €400,000 per week (€20.7 million per year) and would likely want an increase in salary.
The financial aspect of the deal hinges on Liverpool’s new deal with Nike to be their kit sponsor. The deal is worth around €35 million per year but with add-ons and royalties, that figure could inflate to upwards of €115 million.
Of course, these figures were all before the coronavirus pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on the financial markets and forced millions around the world to suddenly become unemployed.
With football clubs and businesses tightening their purse strings, I find it hard to believe that Nike would help fund Mbappé’s salary and even more unlikely that Liverpool would blow up their wage structure and spend nearly €300 million on a single player when they have run away with the Premier League this season without him and won the UEFA Champions League last season without him.
I feel pretty confident in saying that no team, not Liverpool or Real Madrid, will sign Mbappé this summer. The money just isn’t there for either club. It’s possible that next summer PSG will listen to realistic offers but the Frenchman may have signed a contract extension to keep him at the club past 2022 by then.
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