Paris St-Germain have received a €300m (£259m; $332m) bid for Kylian Mbappe from Al-Hilal and give the Saudi professional league club permission to speak to the striker.
Mbappe’s future was plunged into fresh doubt on Friday after the 24-year-old was left out of Paris Saint-Germain’s pre-season tour and put up for sale in the latest escalation of his contract saga.
The France international has the option to extend his stay in Paris for another year until 2025, but with the clause expiring at the end of the month, PSG are preparing for the new season without him.
Mbappe has always seemed intent on joining Real Madrid, who failed to sign him last summer, but Al Hilal has now made an official offer for the player.
Any deal would constitute a world record transfer fee and see Mbappe earn a very lucrative salary.
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Mbappe last month told PSG he would not exercise the option in his agreement signed last summer – but he intends to stay next season.
PSG, in a written letter to the striker, asked Mbappe to clarify his position by July 15, but claimed he had not received any contact from Mbappe or his camp this week.
They have subsequently considered that he is intent on joining Real Madrid on a free transfer next year and is understood to be willing to sue him this season if he does not finalize a move to another club this summer.
The French club, who insist they are confident of their legal position on the situation, are expected to accept significantly less than the €180m they spent to sign the player in 2017 if they sold Mbappe to European rivals.
the athlete It was revealed in January that Real Madrid had not stopped contacting Mbappe’s entourage after the failed first move.
Al Hilal has already signed Ruben Neves from Wolverhampton, Kalidou Koulibaly from Chelsea and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic from Lazio this summer.
The club, along with Al-Ahly Club, Al-Ittihad and Cristiano Ronaldo, is one of the four teams that will now be controlled by the Saudi Public Investment Fund as part of a major reshuffle announced in June.
Go deeper
Explanation: Why PSG is trying to sell Kylian Mbappe and bid €300m from Saudi Arabia
Who really holds the power here?
The fact that PSG took the unprecedented step of omitting Mbappe from their tour of Japan and South Korea underscores their strength. He holds the cards. His contract runs until the end of next season, and Paris Saint-Germain gave him the authority to decide whether or not to extend the contract until the summer of 2025.
Where PSG will try to regain some influence will be on the nature of his departure.
If Mbappe spends his last season at the Parc des Princes confined to the bench, it will affect his legacy on the pitch. The same goes for leaving without a fee, as PSG could claim to be harming the club financially by doing so, and thus affecting their ability to succeed in the future.
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