Barcelona REJECTED the chance to sign Mbappe

Stuart Telford

• Updated: 16 Apr 2024 13:23 BST
• 3 min read

Kylian Mbappe could have been turning out for Barcelona instead of Real Madrid next season had a former sporting director got his way.

Mbappe to Real Madrid this summer is the worst kept secret in football.

Neither player nor club have made the move official, but Mbappe has told Paris Saint-Germain that he wouldn't be extending his current contract that expires in June.

READ MORE: Latest Kylian Mbappe transfer news

Real will pay Mbappe €225 million over the course of his five-year deal, while brother Ethan and mother Fayza Lamari have been sounded out about their playing future and player agency respectively, with Madrid willing to back both.

Barca no longer have the money to compete with Real as they labour with a €1.2 billion debt - stemming from their panic to replace Lionel Messi, who joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 - but Mbappe could have been theirs years earlier.

'Mbappoe would've played for Barca'

"If I had been in charge, Mbappe would have played for Barca," former sporting director Javier Bordas told El Chiringuito.

"I moved for Mbappe. He could have come to Barca. We didn't specify a price, but he would have gone for €100 million. The coaches told us that they wanted [Ousmane] Dembele because of the other players we had. There was the option to bring both of them."

READ MORE: Barcelona's 10 best transfers of all time

Mbappe was playing for Monaco in 2017, on the cusp of securing a loan to PSG that became a permanent transfer for €180m in the summer of 2018 - making him the most expensive teenager of all time.

More than 250 goals and 100 assists in 300 games later, with a World Cup under his belt, he is on his way to Barca's Clasico rivals as perhaps the best player in the world.

Bordas' €100m would have been a snip.