Mbappé’s PSG transfer: the Neymar promise that sparked a football earthquake
Kylian Mbappé is now in his third season at Real Madrid, wearing the iconic number 10. But if things had gone differently nine years ago, he might have been celebrating that anniversary in the Spanish capital instead. A last-minute intervention from Paris Saint-Germain, fuelled by the arrival of Neymar, changed the course of football history. The full story only emerged recently, when former PSG captain Thiago Silva lifted the lid on a secret conversation that took place on the pitch after a match in 2017. The fallout from that revelation has reignited debate among fans and pundits about how close Mbappé came to joining Real Madrid, and what it means for the balance of power in European football.
Mbappé’s rise was meteoric. The 2016/2017 campaign was his first full season with AS Monaco, and he wasted no time making an impact. He helped the club reach the Champions League semi-finals, knocking out Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Thomas Tuchel’s Borussia Dortmund along the way. Monaco also ended a 17-year wait for the Ligue 1 title, their eighth in history, briefly halting PSG’s domestic dominance. For Mbappé, it was the first major turning point of his career.
“Why did I choose PSG? Because PSG is the team of my city”
At just 18, months before his 19th birthday, Mbappé could have been celebrating it as a Real Madrid player, lining up alongside his idol Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Sergio Ramos. But he turned down Florentino Pérez’s advances, even though the Real president was ready to put 180 million euros on the table. PSG matched that offer in the final stretch of the summer window. In December 2018, Mbappé opened up about how the saga ended. “Why did I choose PSG? Because PSG is the team of my city. It’s like a kid from Madrid who supports Real and has the chance to play for his team but goes elsewhere, to another country. No, no, I wanted to play for PSG and I’m very happy with how things are going. There were a lot of transfer rumours, we talked, but I think that’s in the past now for me and for Real Madrid. Now I play for PSG and I will defend these colours 100%.”
“After the match, he came to me and said: ‘If Neymar comes, I want to come too'”
Yet Mbappé’s decision wasn’t purely about representing his home region. Months ago, his former PSG captain spoke about the club’s current affairs. Thiago Silva revealed a previously secret conversation with Mbappé after the Trophée des Champions in the summer of 2017. “I remember the Trophée des Champions against Mbappé’s Monaco very well. After the match, he came up to me and said: ‘If Neymar comes, I want to come too. You can talk to the president about it. I want to be part of this team too.’ Neymar signed, and Mbappé arrived.”
“An incredible friendship formed from the start”
The scales tipped in PSG’s favour for Mbappé, largely because of Neymar’s presence. The Brazilian had joined from FC Barcelona in early August for a fee of 222 million euros. The two forged a close bond that eventually faded over time. “An incredible friendship formed from the start. Then a few years later, what happened happened. I’m a bit disappointed with how things turned out. It should have been different.” The fallout from that broken partnership has sparked widespread debate about what could have been, both for PSG and for Mbappé himself. As the dust settles, the football world is left to wonder: what if Neymar had never come?