France striker Kylian Mbappe has told Paris St-Germain he intends to leave the club at the end of the season.
The 25-year-old’s deal with the Ligue 1 champions is scheduled to expire and he has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.
Mbappe’s future was the subject of a major stand-off with PSG last summer.
At one point, Mbappe was exiled from the first-team squad and left out of the club’s pre-season tour of Asia.
However, an agreement was reached that ensured PSG would not lose out when Mbappe eventually left and the terms of his now seemingly inevitable exit are still to be confirmed.
The forward has a one-year extension clause, so it is expected his departure will involve either a sale with a transfer fee or financial sacrifices on the player’s part.
Whilst PSG would have wanted Mbappe to remain at the club, his exit looks set to come as they aim to build a younger squad and move away from the ‘Galacticos’ plan, that has also seen Argentina forward Lionel Messi and Brazil international Neymar leave since the end of last season.
It is estimated Mbappe, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, earns around €200m per year (£171m).
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PSG are 11 points clear of second-placed Nice at the top of the French league and will also play Nice in the quarter-finals of the domestic cup.
The French champions beat Real Sociedad 2-0 in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League encounter on Wednesday, with Mbappe scoring the opener.
It was his fourth goal in Europe’s top competition this season, while he has 20 goals in the domestic league in the present campaign.
Overall, he has 243 goals and 93 assists in 290 games for PSG and has helped the club to five Ligue 1 title wins.
Mbappe won a French top-flight title with Monaco before joining PSG as an 18-year-old in 2017, initially on loan before a 180m euro (£165.7m) move.
He scored 27 goals and registered 13 assists in 60 games for Monaco.
Mbappe was set to leave PSG on a free transfer at the end of the 2021-22 season but ultimately signed a two-year contract extension, with the option of a further year.
However, after Mbappe told PSG he would not agree to the additional 12 months of the deal, he was not selected for their pre-season tour to Japan last July.
He subsequently refused to meet with representatives of Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal, who made a world-record £259m offer for him.
The striker later returned to first-team training following what PSG said were “very constructive and positive” talks.
Mbappe turned down a move to Real Madrid when he agreed to his current deal with PSG in May 2022.
He scored a hat-trick in the 2022 World Cup final but finished on the losing side as Argentina won on penalties, and Mbappe was subsequently appointed captain of France after Hugo Lloris retired from Les Bleus duty.
Analysis – ‘Mbappe is going to Real Madrid’
European football expert Guillem Balague
It is the confirmation of something we heard for the last couple of days. It happened on Tuesday before training. There was an hour-long conversation with Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of PSG, and Kylian Mbappe. They shook hands and Mbappe said “that’s it, we are gone”.
The French media, and other chosen media, got the memo from PSG saying he is leaving.
PSG are saying “yes he is leaving” but a bunch of things were mentioned as they are trying to put a positive spin on the story.
They are saying “we have started a new adventure that has to do with getting young French players and, in fact, the squad of PSG was the youngest in the last 16 of the Champions League, we have forgotten the galactico era and going somewhere else”.
Mbappe is going. It will take time for the separation to take place and they are negotiating a bunch of things including loyalty bonuses and other stuff.
He has not said where he is going yet… [but] he is going to Real Madrid. Nothing is done but he knows what Real Madrid will offer, although the desperation of the club has been reduced. Instead of the 50m euros (£42.6m) net they were offering in the last proposition, which Mbappe rejected, they are now talking 30m euros (£25.5m).
In the Spanish media over the past few months, Real Madrid have been saying they have a Plan B, so “Kylian if you’re not interested we will get Erling Haaland”.
Financial Fair Play rules will not allow them to sign both Mbappe and Haaland because this free transfer will cost Real Madrid between 100 and 120m euros (£85m-£102m) – that’s what they will have to pay the player to sign him for free.
In the next few weeks and months the negotiations will be between both parties – and I don’t think anyone else is in the equation.
Sources: BBC Sport
