Real Madrid announced this Monday the signing of Kylian Mbappé, 25, its first signing for the 2024/25 season, a few hours after celebrating its 15th European Cup, the sixth in the last ten years. The player, who signs for five seasons, who is currently concentrating with the French team in Clairefontaine to prepare for the Euro Cup that begins next week in Germany, will have to wait until the end of the tournament to be presented at the Santiago Bernabéu. France is scheduled to play a friendly against Luxembourg this Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. at the Saint-Symphorien stadium in Metz, and will debut in the tournament on Monday, June 17 against Austria in Düsseldorf.
The announcement of the hiring of the French footballer, who arrives free after not having extended his contract with PSG that expires on June 30, puts an end to a long courtship of years during which both he and the club explored a complex operation that was close to happening several times. The last one was in the spring of 2022, when his first contract with the Parisian club expired. Then, with everything agreed, the footballer suddenly changed direction and ended up signing a two-year extension with the option of another, which he announced last summer that he did not want to activate.
The first approach happened in 2013, when the player was 14 years old and Madrid invited him to see the facilities of the Valdebebas sports city on a visit whose guide was Zinedine Zidane. In 2017, when Mbappé was playing for Monaco, Florentino Pérez negotiated his possible incorporation, but PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi agreed to a loan with a mandatory purchase option for 180 million euros, and the player signed a five-year contract. years with the Parisian club. In 2021, when he still had a year left there, Madrid sent several offers for him that reached 200 million euros, and to which Al-Khelaifi did not respond.
After his last extension with PSG, Mbappé had the option to extend his stay until 2025, but in the summer of 2023 he informed the club by letter that he did not wish to activate that clause. The move provoked the anger of Al-Khelaifi, who wanted to prevent losing the footballer for free. He started a war with him: he left him out of the Asian preseason tour and separated him from team activities. Until before the first league match of the season they met at the Parc des Princes and agreed that he would leave some financial compensation when he left: he waived in writing bonuses worth 80 million euros and left open the possibility of adding to that part of an alleged transfer bonus from Real Madrid, but the specific terms of his departure have still been discussed in recent days.
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