City take on Real in battle for Mbappe
Pep bids to hijack deal as Real make £160m bid
THE tug of war for Kylian Mbappe intensified last night with Manchester City looking to hijack the Monaco star’s world record move to Real Madrid. City have opened talks with the 18-year-old French sensation and are pursuing a deal that would shatter the £89million deal that brought Paul Pogba to Manchester United last year. Real have agreed a £160m six-year deal but City are refusing to give up the chase. If they succeed, it would take City’s transfer window spend past the £350m mark.
MANCHESTER CITY have opened talks with Monaco in a sensational bid to hijack Kylian Mbappe’s world record move to Real Madrid.
The Spanish giants have agreed a deal worth £160million including add- ons for Mbappe and are close to signing the France striker, 18, on a six-year contract.
But City have refused to give up the chase and are pursuing a deal that would shatter the world record set by Paul Pogba’s £89m move to Manchester United last year. If City pull off the deal, it would send their spending in this transfer window rocketing past the £350m mark.
City have already done £95m worth of business with Monaco this summer for Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva. They have now contacted the club’s vicepresident Vadim Vasilyev to begin negotiations over Mbappe.
Madrid will put up fierce competition for their No 1 transfer target and have already raised £100m towards signing Mbappe by selling Alvaro Morata to Chelsea and Danilo to City.
They have sent James Rodriguez on loan to Bayern Munich and another option under consideration is letting Gareth Bale join United.
Club president Florentino Perez tried to sign the teen earlier this summer but Mbappe’s family and advisers rejected his advances.
There were concerns that he would struggle for playing time in an all- star squad, something counterproductive to a player of his age and in a World Cup year.
But the departures of Morata and Rodriguez — and coach Zinedine Zidane — have reassured Mbappe that he would play a key role at Madrid, where he would join compatriot Karim Benzema and World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo.
Sources close to the Spanish club have confirmed an agreement in principle. Madrid say Mbappe will sign for six seasons earning £6.27m net — or £270,000 a week before tax.
If Real are successful, they will smash the world transfer record for a sixth time. They have previously broken it to sign Luis Figo, Zidane, Kaka, Ronaldo and Bale, but the fee for Mbappe could soon be surpassed if Paris Saint-Germain sign Neymar from Barcelona for £196m.
Meanwhile, Danilo has confirmed that he rejected Chelsea to join City for £26.5m from Madrid. City hijacked Chelsea’s bid to sign the Brazilian right back despite spending £50m on Kyle Walker, after they had missed out on Dani Alves.
‘It wasn’t a difficult decision to choose City over Chelsea,’ he said. ‘The moment City called me and Pep called me, I knew what I had to do. Pep’s words motivated me to be ready for this. It was very fast.
‘I was training with Real Madrid and Pep called me and I was very motivated to make this change and start to work with him.
‘Zidane tried to make me stay but I was sure I needed to change. I needed to think a bit more about myself and find a place where I had more options.’
Danilo, 26, insists he has no regrets about leaving the back-toback European champions.
‘I have no doubt we can win the Champions League, that’s why I chose this team,’ he said.