What’s the story?
The rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid is going to go to another level as both club's target has reportedly chosen which club he wants to join. Kylian Mbappé has been on the radar of both the Spanish giants for a year now, and he's said to have decided to reject all advances from Blaugrana to join Los Blancos.
Reports earlier this week suggested that Real Madrid were ready to pay anything to sign Mbappé. Now the player has also expressed his desire in joining them and has paved the way for the club to star negotiations with AS Monaco.
In case you didn’t know...
Mbappe is the hottest property in the footballing world right now. His playing style has been compared to a certain Thierry Henry, and the youngster has recently broken the Arsenal legend's long-reigning record of the youngest player to score 13 Ligue 1 goals.
He has already scored 19 goals in all competitions this season and has attracted interest from all European giants. The player is a versatile one and has played as a centre forward, left winger and also as an attacking midfielder!
The heart of the matter
Real Madrid are not the first club to show interest in Mbappe this season. Manchester United have already had two bids of £80 million and £95 million rejected for him.
Mbappe has openly admitted that he is a huge fan of Los Blancos and Cristiano Ronaldo - and has also hinted at a move to the Bernabeu on several occasions in the past. Barcelona, along with Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich have been tracking him for some time now, but the player has opted to snub all to join the Los Blancos.
This is not the first time Madrid are interested in signing Mbappe. Zidane recently admitted that the 18-year-old almost joined them for free in 2013 but ended up at Monaco. The Madrid manager held talks with the player, but he was not ready to give him opportunities in the first team straight away and thus opted not to join them.
What’s next?
Real Madrid will definitely bid him in the summer, but it would take a lot of effort to convince AS Monaco to sell him. The Ligue 1 side know that there is a lot of interest in him and the quality of the player, so they will demand a world record fee for him despite him being just 18 years old.
Author’s Take
Mbappe is a brilliant talent and it's not a surprise that he's chosen to join Real Madrid because he himself is a Madridista.
