Paris Saint-Germain has confirmed that their top star, Kylian Mbappe wants to leave the club.
The French champions, however, said they have no intention of getting rolled over by Real Madrid, slamming the strategy being employed by the Spanish giants in getting the player.
Madrid have offered £137million to sign Mbappe despite just one year left on his deal and PSG believe Madrid are just trying to show the player how much they want him, with their real intention to get him for free next summer.
PSG transfer chief, Leonardo, also vowed that the club will not sell the player for less than the £166m they signed him.from Monaco in 2017 and will not lose him for nothing next year.
Leonardo slammed Real Madrid for their ‘illegal’ tactics in their bid to sign the 22-year-old.
Speaking to RMC Sport, the director said: “Kylian Mbappe wants to leave, it seems clear to me.
“If Real Madrid make an offer, it seems clear to me… if he wants to leave, we won’t hold him back, but it’s on our terms.”
Asked if PSG rejected Real Madrid’s offer for Mbappe, Leonardo added: “Yes, we said non-verbally.
“We created a dream with our players this summer, and we won’t let anyone destroy it.
“I can’t confirm the numbers, but it’s around [€160m]. It’s less than what we paid for him. But it is especially the way of doing Real Madrid that we do not like.
“Our position has always been to keep Kylian, to extend him, that has always been our goal and still is.
“We made two important offers to Kylian: one at the top level of the squad two months ago and one above those players very recently. We want to prove to him that he is an important player, at the centre of the project, but not above the project.
“Kylian has always promised that he will not leave the club free… and we never opened the door to a departure. NEVER. People say that I want to sell and not Nasser [Al-Khelaifi, PSG’s Qatari chairman and CEO], but me and Nasser think the same thing.
“Compared to the position of Real, it looks like a strategy to have a ‘no’ on our part, to show that they have tried everything and to wait a year to have it free.
“Real Madrid have been behaving like this for two years, it’s incorrect, illegal even, because they contacted the player. It is unacceptable to us, because it is not correct.
“This is the very proof of the strategy: an offer arrives one year from the end of its contract and seven days from the end of the transfer window. They want a refusal to show Kylian that they’ve tried everything and start negotiating for next year.
“The offer is considered to be a far cry from what Kylian represents today. We also owe part of this money to Monaco and we consider that the proposal is not sufficient.
“We have no plans to talk to Real Madrid again,” Leonardo added, apparently shutting down any talk of a second bid from the Spanish giants.
“The deadline is August 31 at midnight. That’s how the transfer window, for us we are clear: we keep it and we extend it. But we’re not going to let him go for less than what we paid when we still owe Monaco money.
“I am not preparing anything on the market at the moment. He has a one-year contract, we want to extend it. We never thought of a plan B.
“We created a very positive atmosphere. We won’t let anyone change that.”
