Kylian Mbappe admits he asked for Real Madrid transfer and says PSG ‘made me feel like a thief’
Kylian Mbappe has admitted he asked to leave Paris Saint-Germain this summer amid interest from Real Madrid, but insists he made clear his position early in the transfer window and that PSG have “made him feel like a thief” over the saga.
Mbappe was the subject of multiple bids by Madrid during the transfer window, including a €200m (£172m) deadline day offer, but the approaches were rejected by PSG who see Mbappe as a key component in their ambition to win the Champions League alongside fellow superstar forwards Neymar and Lionel Messi.
The 22-year-old’s contract runs out at the end of the season, and he claims he asked to leave so that PSG might receive a fee for his departure. Instead they rebuffed the bids and he now appears set to leave on a free transfer next summer.
“I asked to leave, because from the moment where I did not want to extend, I wanted for the club to receive a transfer fee so that they could bring in a quality replacement,” Mbappe told French radio station RMC.
“This club has given me a lot, I have always been happy [during] the four years I have had here, and I still am. I said it early enough so that the club could react. I wanted everyone to come out of this stronger, that we leave hand in hand, to make a good deal and I respected that. I said, ‘If you don’t want me to go I will stay’.”
Mbappe insisted that he had made his stance clear with plenty of time before the deadline at the end of August. “Personally, I didn’t really appreciate Paris Saint-Germain saying, ‘He is asking to leave in the last week of August’ because that is wrong. It made me feel like a thief. I informed them early, at the end of July.
“People have said that I turned down six or seven extension offers, that I don't want to talk to Leonardo [PSG’s sporting director] anymore, that's absolutely not true. My position was clear, I said at the end of July that I wanted to leave.”
