Mbappé and Cristiano Ronaldo appear on Real Madrid's near-term horizon
Just when it seemed that the summer transfer window was going to be rather quiet for Real Madrid (who so far have had the only notable addition of David Alaba after arriving for free from Bayern Munich), before the close of the transfer window at the end of August, the options of immediately bringing in two real stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé are appearing with a vengeance.
In relation to the French international, everything pointed to the most sensible and feasible option being to wait until the end of his contract with Paris Saint-Germain in 2022 to sign him in a year's time without having to pay a transfer fee. Even more so when PSG president, Qatari Sheikh Nasser al-Khelaifi, insisted that the player was going to continue and kept pushing for the striker to renew his contract and remain linked to the Parisian club even beyond next year.
But, according to various latest reports in media outlets such as AS and ABC, the possibility of Mbappé joining Real Madrid this season is more than real, and it is even reported that there could be an offer from Real Madrid for around €150 million to convince PSG to let the French striker leave right now, even though he has one final year left on his contract. In this sense, the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, could make an effort to sign the French striker now, taking into account the recent income that the club has had thanks to the sale of players such as Raphael Varane to Manchester United for around 50 million euros.
According to media outlets such as Cadena SER and television channel Cuatro, Mbappé wants to sign for Real Madrid now and does not want to wait another year. However, he will not stop training with PSG and will not declare himself in rebellion if PSG do not want to sell him to Real Madrid. The Frenchman wants to leave this summer and wear white, and he will let Al-Khelaifi know in the next few hours, according to Cuatro.
In this sense, Mbappé is clear that he is not going to renew and that he wants to play for Real Madrid. Now, it is the turn of PSG, who will have to decide whether to terminate the striker's contract or negotiate an exit before the end of his contract. The Frenchman has spent several seasons at PSG after leaving Monaco, winning French leagues and cups, but he has always been unable to win the Champions League, and now it seems that he wants to change course and join a team like Real Madrid, the club with the most European Champions League titles, with 13. It is also worth noting that the striker's status at PSG has changed following the arrival of Lionel Messi from FC Barcelona. Now the main star of the Parisian team is the Argentine star and that takes away quite a lot of Mbappé's prominence, both in sporting terms and in terms of salary, being surpassed by Messi in that section, as reported by various media.
Everything would change with his arrival at Real Madrid, where he would appear as an undisputed star, especially taking into account that the Madrid team needs to strengthen its forward line due to the lack of goals and shining stars in the attacking part, with the exception of Karim Benzema.
And that is where there could be another surprise in the Merengues' squad. This is none other than the possible return of Cristiano Ronaldo, the top scorer in Real Madrid history, with 450 goals in 438 official games played as a Madrid player. The Portuguese left Real Madrid in 2018 after winning another Champions League with the team presided over by Florentino Perez, thus accepting at the time the tempting offer from Juventus, but after three years in Italy it seems that his time there is over because the sporting project may not be up to the level associated with the player from Madeira. Cristiano Ronaldo has not been able to win the European Cup with Juventus and, moreover, last season he was unable to win any trophies with the Italian side, despite having won Scudettos and Italian Cups in previous seasons.
AS newspaper already reported at the beginning of August that the Portuguese international player's intention is to return to Real Madrid, although president Florentino Pérez ruled out this option in an interview given to the TV show El Chiringuito, taking into account that Real Madrid's main target might be Kylian Mbappé. Although, as reported again by AS, it seems that Cristiano Ronaldo could insist on returning and now this operation could be completed because Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti could want to sign the Portuguese player, as the relationship between the two is very good, as reported by journalist Edu Aguirre in the programme El Chiringuito.
