Real Madrid plan to contact Kylian Mbappe in the first week of January to find out if he is still willing to sign on 30 June once his contract with PSG expires, as he assured them several months ago when they last spoke.
On that occasion they agreed to communicate again in the first days of January and they will do so. It is the same ‘modus operandi’ that they carried out three years ago with David Alaba, who also ended his contract in June with Bayern Munich and whose contract was signed in the first week of January. Why wait any longer?
No obstacles and no excuses
If the answer that Jose Angel Sanchez receives from Fayza Lamari, the footballer’s mother, or directly from Florentino Perez from the player himself is positive, they will consider closing the deal as soon as possible, including the official signature.
There are no more obstacles to doing just that as he is in the last six months of his contract with PSG. The sporting laws allow him to negotiate and even sign for another club.
The contractual documents have been drawn up, ready and awaiting the personal signatures since mid-May 2022, when the two parties reached an agreement on terms that the striker later refused to sign.
Same conditions
Los Blancos are willing to maintain the same conditions agreed then: a salary of 26 million net per year and a signing bonus of 130 million euros. It does not contemplate changing them either downwards or, of course, upwards.
These conditions fit within the salary structure that the club are meticulously maintaining to avoid comparative grievances that later generate tensions and delicate situations to handle in the dressing room.
Of course, Mbappe would arrive as the highest paid player in the squad given his status as the best player in the world, but in the financial department there are well-defined red lines in this regard.
No excesses will be made and they will not compete with the astronomical figures that PSG are paying him and with which they could tempt him again.
If Mbappe ends up signing for Real Madrid, he will do so by giving up quite a lot of money compared to what he was guaranteed in that third optional season that Al-Khelaifi signed him for.
Even so, he would become the highest paid player in the history of the Spanish club.
It’s now or never
What Madrid are clear that they are not going to do is to repeat the unpleasant experience already lived before and give air to ambiguities or postponements. That is over.
Should they start to hear the evasions of a year and a half ago and see that he no longer wants to sign the contract because he has doubts, Kylian Mbappe will have to assume that this time he is definitively closing the door on ever playing for Real Madrid.
At 25, it will be a door that closes forever. But the last time they spoke, he told them emphatically that he wanted to finish his contract with PSG and finally make the leap to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
A different scenario
Although it may seem similar to what happened a year and a half ago, the scenario is quite different this time.
Madrid are convinced that if they can sign the best player in the world who is also at the end of his contract, they should take advantage of the opportunity and do so, but that is compatible with the fact that inside the club they no longer believe signing him is a priority or even as imperative a need, as it was in May 2022.
That’s why they are going to approach the conversation with Mbappe with the peace of mind that comes from knowing that this time there is a plan B.
The Bellingham explosion
In that sense, the explosion of Jude Bellingham has a lot to do with it, although it is not only that.
Last week, ‘Transfermarkt’ raised the English footballer’s valuation to 180 million euros, putting him on a par on that scale with the two big players, Mbappe and Erling Haaland.
The fact that in just five months in white Bellingham has risen to world football’s top level speaks of the tremendous expectations that have been unleashed at the age of 20 by a player who the club believe is destined to mark an era both for his goals and his footballing quality as well as his character and leadership.
Vinicius, Rodrygo… and Endrick
But they are also counting on the consolidation of Vinicius, an already established player who aspires to climb to the level of the aforementioned ‘Big Three’.
They also have Rodrygo’s evolution towards a striker profile with goalscoring records valid for the demands of Real Madrid and finally, the enormous expectations they have placed on the very young Endrick, another youth project for the medium-term future of the team.
With all that, plus the certainty that Haaland wants to play for Real Madrid the day he separates his path from Guardiola’s, the club are calm. They are in no hurry. They will try to sign Mbappe, of course, but not at any price.
