THE EURO FILES: Mbappe is expensive, divisive, and would disrupt the harmony
On Wednesday night at the Santiago Bernabeu Erling Haaland’s agent, Rafaela Pimenta, was among the 69,000 crowd to watch Real Madrid — playing without a centre forward as usual — beat Braga 3-0.
On the same night a prominent Spanish radio journalist had announced that Real Madrid had ‘ruled out signing Kylian Mbappe’ this summer, or ever.
And all this came 24-hours after the Spanish club went to the trouble of releasing a statement to officially deny they were negotiating with Mbappe ahead of him becoming a free agent this January.
We can take ‘Madrid ruling out ever signing Mbappe’ as seriously as the stories about them being ‘primed to announce him any day’, last summer and the summer before that.
But what does seem clear is that the Paris Saint-Germain forward, who turns 25 next month, can no longer name his price — Real Madrid cannot and will not pay what he is paid by Qatar.
They erred in the summer not doing more to sign Harry Kane. They failed to look beyond his 30 years and have looked on enviously ever since at the way the Bayern Munich striker has adapted to his new club every bit as quickly as Jude Bellingham.
And they also erred giving up on Haaland in 2022 because they were blinkered and could still only see Mbappe.
It is now clear that Haaland fits them better than the Frenchman, who plays in the same position as Vinicius Junior and would be far more likely to disrupt a dressing room harmony built around no one feeling superior to anyone else.
Mbappe’s arrival would disrupt the club’s pay structure. Beyond demanding a €100million signing on fee, he earns €25m net in France and Madrid’s pay ceiling is currently around €11m — it’s where the likes of Toni Kroos and David Alaba are, in the final years of their deals,
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