Kylian Mbappé would return optimism to Real Madrid

I admit that until yesterday I did not see Kylian Mbappé signing for Real Madrid this season as a viable outcome, but after seeing Leonardo's statements I now see it clearer. Other considerations aside, he looks angry, and we tend not to get angry when we’re winning, but when we are losing. And for the first time someone from PSG has admitted that the player could leave before the end of his contract although has said “on our terms". Those terms, of course, will involve a higher value than the 160 million euros that Madrid has offered. L'Équipe spoke yesterday of an amount close to 200 million. Those valuations are not so far apart as to rule out an agreement.

A priceless Mbappé strategy

Just yesterday, this newspaper published a best XI of former Madridistas sold since 2017, raising a combined transfer fee of 462 million euros, more than 100 million of what has been spent on signings in that same period. It has been a policy of making savings, with one eye on the stadium rebuild, which has been accompanied by a focus of wage management that is being envied across at Barça. This month Varane and Odegaard were the latest to go. This frugal approach over recent years now allows a push for Mbappé, within Florentino Pérez’s guiding principles: the strategy is priceless. And in these current times of general decline of our game, Mbappé is strategic.

Mbappé’s Real Madrid fascination

As for the player, he can make true what Cerezo once said: that great footballers play where they desire. He has turned down six renewal offers from PSG, and was rewarded for that with a vocal backlash from the club's ultras on the day of Messi's presentation. He was a child during Madrid’s Galacticos, and a teenager through Cristiano Ronaldo's white reign. He has grown up fascinated by the legend of Real Madrid. He was previously on the verge of arriving but Florentino did not want to sell Bale, and he feared he would be a substitute to the BBC so chose PSG instead. Now he's in a hurry and because of this has agitated Madrid's offer, and with it Leonardo's very revealing tantrum.