Real Madrid: Mbappé likely to command wage of at least €15m
Kylian Mbappé is Florentino Pérez's dream summer signing - but the Real Madrid president will have to dig very deep to secure his signature.
A report by L'Équipe on France's best-paid sports stars has shed light on the kind of salary that Real Madrid look likely to have to offer Kylian Mbappé if they are to sign the Paris Saint-Germain striker this summer.
The French newspaper has revealed that, in the 2018 calendar year, Mbappé earned a gross PSG wage that rose from 1.55 million euros a month in the 2017/18 season to 1.77 million this term: pay packets which, after tax, amount to 10.8 million and 12 million euros per campaign, respectively.
Mbappé due to earn 13.2 million net at PSG next term
As part of his contract at the Ligue 1 champions - which runs until 2022 - the France star receives a 1.2-million-euro net salary increase each season. As a result, the 20-year-old is in line to pocket a total of 13.2 million euros at PSG in 2019/20.
It therefore seems unlikely that Madrid would tempt the World Cup winner to the Bernabéu for anything less than 15 million euros net per year. Currently, Gareth Bale is the LaLiga club's highest earner on 14 million euros, followed by Sergio Ramos (11 million), and Karim Benzema and Luka Modric (both 10 million).
Mbappé's overall 2018 earnings of 24.7 million euros - which also include endorsements with Nike and Hublot - left him second in L'Équipe's income charts, behind Antoine Griezmann, whose net Atlético Madrid wage "doubled [...] from 10 million euros a year to 20 million," says the publication, and who also has sponsorship deals with Puma, Huawei and Gillette.
France's top-earning athletes in 2018 according to L'Équipe
1. Antoine Griezmann: 33 million euros
2. Kylian Mbappé: 24.7 million euros
3. Paul Pogba: 22.1 million euros
4. Karim Benzema: 22 million euros
5. Nicolas Batum: 20.9 million euros