French footballer Kylian Mbappe is photographed at the national football team’s training center in Clairefontaine, west of Paris, on Monday, June 3, 2024, ahead of the UEFA Euro 2024.
11:33 JST, June 4, 2024
MADRID (AP) — Kylian Mbappe is finally a Real Madrid player.
Madrid said on Monday it has reached a deal with the French star for the next five seasons, bringing together one of football’s top talents and its most successful club.
Madrid has not released any financial details. It was also not immediately said when Mbappé, who is preparing for the European Championship together with France, will be officially introduced.
The announcement came after years of flirtation by Madrid with the player who inherited the status of the best in the game from Lionel Messi.
“A dream come true,” Mbappé said on X. “So happy and proud to join the club of my dreams. No one understands how excited I am right now. I can’t wait to see you, Madridistas (Madrid fans), and thank you for your incredible support. ¡Hala Madrid!”
The post, with the message written in English, Spanish and French, was accompanied by photos of a young Mbappe wearing a Madrid jacket during a visit to the club. One photo was with Madrid great Cristiano Ronaldo.
The club also posted a video on its website with highlights of Mbappé. In the beginning, a voiceover says, “Are you looking closely?”
The 25-year-old World Cup winner joins a Madrid team already packed with talent and still celebrating its latest European victory – and sixth in ten seasons.
Just two days ago, Madrid won a record-breaking 15th European Cup title when they defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the Champions League final in London.
Mbappé joins a team that already includes young stars in Vinícius Júnior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham.
His signing could revitalize Madrid’s Galatico squad, when it had some of the best players in the world, including the likes of Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Brazil’s Ronaldo, David Beckham, Luis Figo and Karim Benzema.
The current Madrid players were quick to welcome their newest teammate.
“Welcome to the best club in the world,” said striker Brahim Díaz.
“I don’t know if we won the Champion League on Saturday or today, thanks to the signing of Mbappe,” said former Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
So far, Mbappe has only played club football for French teams – first with Monaco and for the past seven seasons with Paris Saint-Germain, which he left as a free agent after failing to convince him to renew his contract. Mbappé has not taken the option for an extra year on the contract he signed two years ago.
Monaco wished Mbappé good luck and posted a photo of the player as a youngster wearing the Monaco jersey in front of several posters of Madrid players, including Ronaldo.
The Spanish league called it “a new star in the Real Madrid universe.”
In 2021, Madrid were rejected after PSG offered a bid of 180 million euros, the same amount PSG paid Monaco for a teenage Mbappe years earlier.
Madrid president Florentino Pérez made signing Mbappe a strategic club priority as the superpower failed to sign him when Mbappe visited the club’s facilities at the age of 14.
Instead, he opted to join Monaco’s youth academy and became a teenage sensation as he helped the Principality club reach the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2017.
Qatar-backed PSG turned down Madrid’s 2021 bid, but with Mbappe’s contract set to expire the following year, Madrid assumed Mbappe, who had never hidden his desire to one day play for the Spanish club, would be south of the Pyrenees would come. 2022.
But French President Emmanuel Macron encouraged him to stay, and Mbappé stunned Pérez and most of the football world by signing a contract extension to “continue his adventure” in Paris.
Madrid won the 2022 Champions League after beating Mbappe’s PSG in the knockout rounds.
Pérez said after Mbappe rejected his club two years ago that it might have been for the best that he didn’t come after all, but no bridges were burned and Madrid are getting a once-in-a-generation player as a free agent.
Mbappe studied Spanish while at Monaco and speaks it well, which should help him blend in well in a team that also includes French players Eduardo Camavinga, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Ferland Mendy.
Mbappe’s CV includes winning the World Cup at the age of 19, a hat-trick in the World Cup final at the age of 23, seven French leagues, four French Cups and a proven ability to dominate matches with his goalscoring prowess.
Mbappé is the captain of France. When they won the World Cup in 2018, he became the second teenager after Pele to score in a World Cup final. Four years later, he was one of only two players in history to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final as France fell to Messi’s Argentina.
Mbappe failed to lead PSG to the ultimate goal of the Champions League title, losing the only final he played in 2020. This season he also failed to score in both semi-finals against Dortmund.
Mbappé left PSG as all-time top scorer with 256 goals, including a club record of 175 in the French league. His highest scoring season at PSG was 44, and he was the French League’s top scorer for the sixth consecutive season (27).
