Leonardo, sporting director at Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain, has today taken aim Real Madrid, over the Spanish outfit’s continued pursuit of Kylian Mbappe.
PSG stand firm
The headline news surrounding ongoings at the Bernabeu this past summer of course came in the form of Real’s pursuit of Kylian Mbappe.
Despite the French international having had just a year to run on his contract with PSG, it is understood that Los Blancos tabled a mammoth offer worth €170 million, plus a further 10 million in bonuses, for his signature.
Confirmed. Real Madrid made a new official bid to Paris Saint-Germain for Kylian Mbappé. €170m guaranteed + €10m add ons. ⚪️🚨 #RealMadrid #Mbappé
Real Madrid sources feeling is that it will be the final bid. Mbappé only wants Real Madrid, now or next summer. pic.twitter.com/xRhVUsYDlt
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 26, 2021
Remarkably, however, the board at the Parc des Princes opted to knock this proposal back.
In turn, word was forthcoming late in August that Florentino Perez and co. had come to the decision to pull the plug on their summer swoop for Mbappe, to instead focus their attentions on finding a pre-contract agreement with the 22-year-old in January.
‘A lack of respect’
And so, the weeks since have seen speculation continue to swirl in the media, with the widespread assumption remaining that, in the end, Mbappe will make his Madrid-shaped dreams come true.
As outlined above, though, one individual who is evidently none too happy with the manner in which Real have conducted their pursuit of the attacker, is PSG chief Leonardo.
Speaking in an interview with Festival dello Sport on Saturday, the sporting director in the French capital was drawn on Mbappe’s situation.
And Leonardo first went on to confirm that the club’s end goal remains to extend the terms of their star youngster:
PSG director Leonardo to Festival dello Sport: “Our idea is to extend Kylian Mbappé contract. Nothing has changed in our plans. Kylian is a jewel, he is incredibly perfect for PSG… then we’ve Kylian, Leo, Ney. We’ve never planned PSG future without Mbappé”. 🚨 #PSG #Mbappé pic.twitter.com/Y5XZpvXG1J
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 9, 2021
From here, however, the Brazilian turned his attention firmly towards those at the Bernabeu, slamming Los Blancos for what has been deemed as a ‘lack of respect’, before going as far as to call for Florentino Perez and co. to be ‘punished’:
PSG director Leonardo to Festival dello Sport: “From Real Madrid I see a lack of respect for Mbappé. He is not a normal player, he is one of the best in the world. The manager, the board, Real players spoke about Kylian… I think it’s part of their plan. Not respectful”. 🚨 #PSG
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 9, 2021
PSG director Leonardo to Festival dello Sport: “From Madrid they deny, but I think Real Madrid have been doing a job to buy Mbappé [as a free agent] for a long time. For two years they have been speaking publicly about Mbappé. This must be be punished”. 🚨 #PSG #RealMadrid pic.twitter.com/qM3zZizOm2
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 9, 2021
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