Kylian Mbappe has already enjoyed the perfect start to life in Real Madrid, but things could have gone a lot differently for the superstar striker.
Mbappe left Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer this summer and his long expected move to Madrid was confirmed.
Mbappe has already got his hands on a trophy at Real Madrid Credit: Getty
The 25-year-old was in a constant battle with PSG and ended up refusing to sign a new contract in order to leave for free.
PSG previously accepted a €300m (£259m) offer from Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal last summer.
Although, the player instantly turned down the chance to move to the Gulf State.
According to Portuguese journalist Bruno Andrade, the Parisian giants also accepted an offer from an unnamed Premier League side.
“Direct order from Qatar: Mbappe, if he stays at PSG, he won’t play even a minute,” he wrote on Twitter, translated from Portuguese.
“It’s the scenario of TODAY. French club has already accepted at least two offers for the striker, one from the Premier League and the other from Al Hilal, but there was no agreement between all parties.”
Chelsea were among the clubs loosely linked with a move for Mbappe, while he had previously spoken of his admiration for Liverpool.
Speaking in 2020, he said: “This season, Liverpool have been a machine in the Premier League.
“They have made winning look easy but the truth is that it is never easy.
“Performances like they have been having don’t just happen.
Mbappe had the option to join the Premier League Credit: Getty
“To be as ruthless as they have been would come from lots of hard work in training and from having a very good manager.”
That same year, he said: “What Liverpool do in this moment is amazing. They’re like a machine, they’ve found a rhythm and are like ‘we play again, we play again’.
“They’ve lost zero games. When you watch you think everything’s easy but that’s not easy. The guys are focused, they play games every three days and they win, they win, they win.
“Now the problem is that everybody watches Liverpool, and everybody watches what we can do against them, so now they have to show they are strong again but it’s a very good team with a very good manager.”
Mbappe eventually signed for Real Madrid and actually took a pay cut to join them. He will be paid around £12.8m-per-year, while he was earning around £21m at PSG.
However, he got a huge signing bonus of around £80m to head to the Bernabeu.
Mbappe unveiled in front of 80,000 Real Madrid fans Credit: Getty
Speaking after being unveiled in front of 85,000 people, Mbappe said: “I want to thank the president [Florentino Pérez] first. He believed in me from the first day. A lot of things happened, but I want to say thank you.
“I want to thank everyone who has worked for me to come here. I know it was hard but now I’m here, I’m a Real Madrid player.
“Since I was a kid I had one dream, to play here. Being here means a lot to me … Now I want to achieve another dream, being at the level of this club, the best in the world. I can say one thing: I’ll give everything for this club and this badge.”
Things got off to the perfect start too as he scored in the UEFA Super Cup victory over Atalanta.