Saudi Arabia is still determined to break into the soccer market with big money. The most recent attempt, if successful, would see one of the best active players join the Saudi Professional League. That player is Kylian Mbappé, who has already received a billion-dollar offer to join the top flight of Saudi soccer.
Mbappé's current club Paris Saint-Germain has received an offer valued at $332 million from Al Hilal, one of the top teams in the Saudi league, as reported by several sports media outlets such as The Athletic.
The contract that the French player would receive would be the largest ever. Al Hilal would be willing to pay him an estimated $773 million per season, making him the highest paid athlete of all time. In other words, the transaction would be in excess of $1 billion.
In conflict with Paris Saint-Germain
Mbappé will most likely leave Paris Saint-Germain this summer. This is the wish he has already conveyed to the French club's management, whose reaction has been to declare him transferable so that he can leave the team. However, they have tried to renew him without a positive response, which has led to several disagreements between Mbappé and Paris Saint-Germain's Qatari president, Nasser Al Khelaifi, in recent months.
Last year, Mbappé was on the verge of leaving the team. When his contract had already expired, the French club's executive managed to renew it for two more seasons. Now, knowing that the player will not extend his contract, which expires on June 30, 2024, Paris Saint-Germain seems obliged to transfer him for a good amount of money and prevent one of the best players in the world from leaving for free next year.
Real Madrid: Mbappé’s dream
Most of the big stars landing in Saudi soccer are players who are over 30 years old. Cristiano Ronaldo (38 years old) or Karim Benzema (35) are some of the examples. It would therefore be difficult to believe that Mbappé will accept Al Hilal's multi-million dollar offer, knowing that he is 24 years old and still has a lot to contribute in Europe, where the best teams in the world are.
Last year, Mbappé was very close to changing teams, and everything pointed to him joining the team he is most excited about: Real Madrid. He said so himself just over a year ago in an interview with the BBC, as soon as he learned that he would continue, in principle, until 2024 and that he would then have to turn down the chance to join the Spanish club:
Kylian Mbappe has spoken about his decision to stay at PSG. ⚽️
However, he's not ruled out moving to Real Madrid in the future. 👀
📲💻 Watch his interview in full and read more ⤵️#BBCFootball
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 24, 2022
For the moment, there is no formal offer from Real Madrid for Mbappé. However, some say that the French player has already signed an agreement with the Spanish club for next season.
