‘Real Madrid should add Vinicius Junior to Kylian Mbappe deal’

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:39 CDT
• 2 min read

Former Real Madrid general manager Jorge Valdano believes the club should grant any request from Paris Saint-Germain to include Vinicius Junior in any potential deal for Kylian Mbappe.

Mbappe’s contract with PSG runs out in the summer of 2022, with the club currently scrambling to tie him down to an extended deal rather than lose the Frenchman for a lower price this summer or even for free a year later.

READ MORE: Mbappe sent Real Madrid warning: Critics are just as fierce in Spain

No agreement has been made on a new contract, and with that has come increased speculation that the World Cup winner could be heading for the exit in Paris.

Even after becoming the world’s second-most expensive player in history when he signed for PSG from Monaco, the rumours surrounding Mbappe’s future have never really subsided, especially when most know he is a self-confessed Real Madrid fan who idolised Madrid legend Cristiano Ronaldo growing up.

Los Blancos have allegedly made Mbappe and Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland their two main transfer targets for this summer, hoping to sign at least one of the pair.

Player plus cash for Mbappe?

As well as a huge transfer fee, PSG, according to Mundo Deportivo, could ask for Brazilian winger Vinicius Jr as part of the deal to let Mbappe leave.

Valdano thinks this would be an acceptable loss for the Spanish giants if it meant getting Mbappe.

“Put him in the operation? If the change is that, yes,” Valdano said on El Transistor when asked about adding Vinicus Jr to the deal.

“Because not only would we be signing one of the most attractive and powerful players in the world but also a boy of the same age and of a similar position.

Though Valdano does not necessarily want to see Vinicius Jr leave the Santiago Bernabeu, he would accept it in order to land one of the best players around in Mbappe.

“The question is that you change it (the deal), to me, for one of the best in the world,” he continued.

Vinicius Jr arrived at Real Madrid in the summer of 2017 for a fee of €46 million which made him the most expensive player under the age of 19 in history at the time.

So far, however, he has failed to live up to the early promise he displayed in Brazil.