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REAL MADRID

Real Madrid: are PSG pushing Kylian Mbappé away?

As Zinedine Zidane and Los Blancos continue to focus on bringing in the French superstar, the Ligue 1 club have given him another reason to make the move.

Mbappé, en un partido del PSG de esta temporada.
Mbappé, en un partido del PSG de esta temporada.AFP

Paris Saint-Germain appear to be pushing Kylian Mbappé further and further away from the French capital, and all this while football has been put on hold for the coronavirus pandemic.

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Mbappé squeezed closer to Real Madrid

The Ligue 1 club is currently in hard negotiations with some of their squad heavyweights - namely Thiago Silva, Neymar and Mbappé - in order to cut their wages and thus alleviate the serious economic crisis that they, and every club, finds themselves in right now. And it’s certainly not just any cut.

While Real Madrid announced that their playing staff, and others, had voluntarily agreed to drop their salaries between 10% and 20% relative to whether or not this season’s football returns, PSG are asking their stars to take at least a 50% cut. This is story reported by Le Parisien on Thursday, who are well informed about goings on at the capital club.

Decisions ahead | Paris St Germain's Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring their sixth goal.
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Decisions ahead | Paris St Germain's Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring their sixth goal.GONZALO FUENTESREUTERS

If this is pushed through, Mbappé would go from collecting €20.8 million net to €10.4 million. And it comes at a time when the club want him to renew his contract with them.

PSG estimate losses of more than €300 million due to the impact of Covid-19 and their president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, was one of the first to give the green light in Ligue 1 to the cuts given that the overall salary total is €371m this year. Real Madrid, for comparison, pays out €283m. The Qatari-owned French club has paid over the odds in some cases and have the especially-burdensome amounts for Neymar (€37m net) along with those for players in the final stretch of their top flight career such as Thiago Silva (35 years old) and Edison Cavani (33). Mbappé is the one they were looking to for the future, but signs are that this may not be the case.

As Real Madrid maintain their obvious admiration for the French youngster, the Parisian club has been showing lots of affection for the player across their social media platforms in recent days. But everything seems to be aligning for the benefit of Los Blancos who have targeted a summer 2021 capture, knocked back by the current crisis. Mbappé is not comfortable with manager Thomas Tuchel, he refuses to renew, and this drop in salary does not exactly encourage him to do so. It’s just the type of news they wanted to hear at the Bernabéu.