25 July 2023 , 13:45
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Barcelona have entered the race to sign Kylian Mbappe this summer after Paris Saint-Germain excluded him from their pre-season tour of Japan and put him up for sale.
Mbappe has refused to extend his contract with beyond 2024 and sent PSG a letter last month informing them of his decision not to take up an option in his current deal to extend it by a further year. As a result, PSG have decided to try and cash in on him this summer, rather than letting him leave for free next summer.
"My position is very clear," PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi said. "I don't want to repeat it every time: if Kylian wants to stay, we want him to stay. But he needs to sign a new contract.
"We don't want to lose the best player in the world for free, we can't do that. This is a French club. He said he would never leave for free. If he changes his mind today, it's not my fault. We don't want to lose the best player in the world for free, that's very clear."
Real Madrid have long been interested in signing Mbappe, who is also keen on a move to the Bernabeu, and they are believed to have agreed a deal with the player which involves him getting the money that would have been paid to PSG in transfer fees as a signing-on bonus.
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Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal have made a record bid for Mbappe that would see PSG bank a whopping €300m (£260m), with Al-Hilal reportedly willing to only offer the 24-year-old a one-year deal that would allow him to join Real Madrid for nothing next year as planned.
However, Mbappe is not thought to be interested in walking away from European football, even for just one season, and a number of other top clubs are unsurprisingly interested in his services.
PSG have put Kylian Mbappe up for sale (Getty Images)Mirror Football is now on Threads!
Premier League outfits Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham are said to have made enquiries, while Barcelona would love to gazump their La Liga rivals and lure Mbappe to the Camp Nou.
Barcelona's financial woes, though, mean they have been forced to get creative in their attempts to sign Mbappe. "We know for example Barcelona yesterday picked up the phone to PSG, and said 'we can't afford any transfer fee for him, we can't even afford his wages'," French journalist Julien Laurens told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"Kylian Mbappe earns €72m (£62m) gross a year, but no-one can afford that so he will have to take a pay cut and he's aware of it, but Barcelona said 'how about we swap players for Mbappe, who do you want in our squad?' Every big club in Europe is going to try to put something together to maybe, firstly, convince PSG to sell to them, and then convince Mbappe to come to them."