French club Paris Saint-Germain received a record-breaking bid for their star forward Kylian Mbappé — 300 million euros ($333 million), the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The Al Hilal Saudi Club made the record-breaking bid, granting them permission to talk and negotiate with the forward.
“PSG have given Al Hilal permission to negotiate with Kylian Mbappé about a transfer for 300 million euros,” a source familiar with the negotiation told AFP.
PSG and Mbappé, 24, have been at odds regarding his contract, with Mbappé not wanting to extend his contract yet stay with them for the remainder of the final season.
If he does finish the rest of his one-year contract, he becomes a free agent for the summer, which PSG doesn’t want to happen because he would’ve left for nothing, hence, why they want him to go sooner than later.
“We can’t let the best player in the world today leave for free,” club president Nasser al-Khelaifi said.
Khelaifi gave the 24-year-old an ultimatum: leave this summer and become a free agent or sign a new contract.
Mbappé reportedly hasn’t expressed interest in joining AL Hilal. However, according to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, PSG believes Mbappé already struck a deal with Real Madrid, who has expressed interest in the 24-year-old.
EXCL: Al Hilal have submitted formal bid to Paris Saint-Germain in order to open talks for Kylian Mbappé. ????
Understand it’s worth €300m — record fee.
No talks on player side.
⚪️ PSG remain convinced that Mbappé already agreed terms with Real Madrid with contract ready. pic.twitter.com/yeDu5AQr6E
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 24, 2023
Around the time Khelaifi desires the 24-year-old’s decision to be made, PSG players will be on the pre-season tour of Asia (South Korea and Japan, which Mbappé won’t be joining. Instead, the forward has been training with the reserve team.
That didn’t sit right with the French National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP), who called PSG out for not enabling the 24-year-old and other sidelined teammates to finish to tour with the rest of the group, which the contracts include.
“Players deemed ‘undesirable’ or that clubs want to see leave at all costs, despite the respect of contracts signed in due form,” UNFP’s statement read. “Contracts of freely fixed duration by mutual agreement, therefore, between an employer and an employee.”
The statement continued, “These players, all these players, must benefit from the same working conditions as the rest of the professional squad. Nevertheless, it seems useful for the UNFP to remind managers that exerting pressure on an employee – via the deterioration of his working conditions, for example – to force him to leave or accept what the employer wants constitutes moral harassment, which French law strongly condemns. The decision of the Reims Appeals Chamber in January 2020 confirms this.”
It concluded, “So, yes, the UNFP reserves the right to initiate all civil and criminal proceedings against clubs that behave in this way.”
