Over the past few weeks, there’s been silence from Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbappé regarding the superstar’s future and recent rumors of Real Madrid making an offer for the France international.
PSG sporting director Leonardo broke the silence when he spoke to French media outlets such as RMC Sport. The first question that the club chief answered was the obvious one, his reaction to the reported offer from Real Madrid for Mbappé.
“We haven’t had a lot of public communication about that, but our position has always been to keep Kylian, to extend him; that has always been our goal and still is. We made two important offers to Kylian: one at the top level of the squad two months ago and one above those players very recently. We want to prove to him that he is an important player, at the center of the project, but not above the project,” Leonardo said.
“Compared to the position of Real, it looks like a strategy to have a no on our part, to show that they have tried everything and to wait a year to have it free. Real Madrid has been behaving like this for two years; it’s incorrect and illegal even because they contacted the player. It is unacceptable to us because it is not correct. This is the very proof of the strategy: an offer arrives one year from the end of its contract and seven days from the end of the transfer window. They want a refusal to show Kylian that they’ve tried everything and start negotiating for next year.”
Leonardo would follow up the question by stating that they’ve rejected an offer from Los Blancos. However, the Brazilian doesn’t reveal how much it was by does state that it was an insufficient offer, considering they’ll need to pay an additional €35-million to AS Monaco from a sale or contract renewal of the 22-year-old.
“Yes, we said non-verbally. But we are not holding anyone back. If someone wants to leave and our conditions are met, we’ll see. But we created a dream with our players this summer, and we won’t let anyone destroy it,” Leonardo said.
“The offer is considered to be a far cry from what Kylian represents today. We also owe part of this money to Monaco, and we consider that the proposal is not sufficient.”
The next question that Leonardo answered is over Mbappé wanting to depart the club as he’s yet to sign a contract extension with the club.
“Kylian Mbappé wants to leave; it seems clear to me. If Real Madrid makes an offer, it seems clear to me … I give a position, which, I think, is clear to everyone,” Leonardo said. “We cannot the last week of the transfer window, change our plans. If he wants to leave, we won’t hold him back, but it’s on our terms.”
Finally, there have been recent reports of PSG possibly pursuing players like Richarlison and Robert Lewandowski as replacements for Mbappé. Leonardo quickly shot these rumors down.
“I am not preparing anything on the market at the moment. [Mbappé] has a one-year contract; we want to extend it. We never thought of a plan B. We created a very positive atmosphere. We won’t let anyone change that,” Leonardo said.
