'Kylian Mbappe's Relationship With PSG is Deep': Club Director on French Star's Future in Paris

PSG's sporting director Leonardo has claimed that the club's talismanic forward Kylian Mbappe has a "deep relationship" with the French side and he won't leave the Paris-based club on a free transfer next year.

"I don't see Mbappe leaving at the end of this season. Nobody is thinking about the future of Paris Saint-Germain without Kylian", the PSG director told French outlet Canal Plus. "Kylian sort of represents the difference between the superficial and the deep. Kylian's relationship with Paris Saint-Germain is deep. That's why we don't think about anything else".

Leonardo

Paris Saint-Germain sporting director

"Kylian represents many things. Not only because he is French or one of the best players in the world. He has a way of being that we like and one that everyone likes", he added.

Real Madrid has been in hot pursuit of Mbappe with club President Florentino Perez eager to land him at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium as early as possible.

The 13-time UEFA Champions League winners did try their best to secure his departure from the Parc des Princes during the summer transfer window, making three massive offers, with their last bid coming hours before the 31 August deadline.

Despite Madrid increasing their offer twice from $188 million to $211 million then to $262 million, the Parisian club's President Nasser Al-Khelaifi rejected Los Blancos' advances, while being fully aware that Mbappe's current contract with PSG expires next year and he could leave the side for free.

But Leonardo doesn't think that Mbappe will exit the French capital as a free agent.

However, he did accuse Madrid of submitting sub-standard bids because they don't want to pay for Mbappe's arrival in the Spanish capital. They would rather have him in the team in 2022 on a free transfer.

Leonardo even claimed that Madrid never offered the so-called world-record amount to PSG which was reported by several media outlets.

"Starting negotiations for one of the best players in the world in the last week of the transfer market generated a situation that we did not like". "We were clear about our position with the offer. It was not enough, it was smaller than what we paid. The last offer they talked about never came. You can't organise a transfer market for two, three or four months and change your plans like that", Leonardo said.