After the offer from Real Madrid came, Leonardo wanted to make sure he left the proper message to Kylian Mbappe for wanting to leave.
Contrary to what the majority of the PSG supporters thought, Leonardo wanted to make sure about his stance on Kylian Mbappe. Until his recent interview with RMC Sport, the PSG Sporting Director was thought to be happy with allowing the French forward to leave. Only Nasser and the Sheikh were believed to be unhappy. But Leonardo is just as angry as the other two against Real Madrid. And he is also disappointed at Kylian Mbappe for refusing to stay. This is what he said during the interview: “PSG’s position has always been to keep Kylian, to renew him. Always, for the last two years, the objective has always been and remains the same.
“We made him a very big offer two months ago at the level of the top players, another even less than the last top players, but for me this seems to me to be a strategy of Real Madrid, to have one of our players. For two years now, Madrid has been behaving in a way that is not correct, illegal, contacting his entourage… [it’s] unacceptable, not correct at all towards us. And the proof of that strategy is to present an offer seven days before the end of the transfer window and one year before the end of his contract and it seems to be a strategy to give the impression that they have tried everything. We are not considering the fee, which is far below what we expected, and we are not going to sell a player for less than what we paid for him at the age of 18. We have to give an outstanding sum to Monaco and the offer is not enough for us.”
Leonardo reveals where they would consider an offer.
Going further about Real Madrid’s offer and any PSG player who wants to leave, Leonardo said the following: “To everyone: if someone wants to leave, no one is going to destroy our dream. The club is going to protect itself, that’s what I do. We don’t negotiate through the press. If Madrid use the press to negotiate, that is not the case for us. I don’t know what Madrid think, but they know that we have to pay Monaco [there is talk of 35 million euros]. There has been an overall strategy for two years to get to this point. Their plan was to make an offer a week before the end of the transfer window that they know we are not going to accept. After that, say ‘well we have tried and they didn’t want to’ and we will have the right to sign him on a free.
“Kylian has always made it clear that he will not leave on a free. I have always said that he will not leave for free. We have spoken a lot with Mbappe, with him, with his parents, with his entourage… we have come a long way with him. I know people say I want to sell, but Nasser [Al-Khelaifi, PSG’s president] and I have the same opinion, we are not divided. If someone wants to leave we are not going to say no, but he will do it on our terms. We will see what happens.”
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