Mbappe: Why I want to join Real Madrid
Carlo Garganese
- Updated: 23 May 2023 08:54 CDT
- 6 min read
Kylian Mbappe has explained why he wanted to join Real Madrid this summer and says it is still his intention to leave PSG.
Mbappe was involved in the biggest transfer saga of the summer as he attempted to push through a move to La Liga giants Madrid.
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In the end the transfer didn’t go through but Mbappe is widely expected to still move to the Santiago Bernabeu at the end of the season on a Bosman when his PSG contract runs out.
In an extensive interview with L’Equipe, during which he admitted calling teammate Neymar a ‘tramp’ and said that Lionel Messi walks around the pitch, Mbappe has given his version of the events surrounding his failed move to Madrid.
Mbappe: I asked to leave after Euros
“At the start of the summer, I asked for some time to reflect. Before the Euros, I told the club that I didn’t want to renew, and after the Euros I said I wanted to leave,” Mbappe said.
“My ambition was really for everyone to move forward hand in hand, the selling club, the buying club and me. That we work out the best deal possible and go out through the front door. I also wanted to leave my club the time to find a replacement. That everyone would be happy and that I could go on my merry way.
“I also wanted to avoid leaving on a free. But the club decided not to sell me. I was okay with that. I kept playing for the whole month of August and was putting in good performances. I don’t have an issue with that, I’m still at a big team and in a place where I’ve been happy for four years.
“I didn’t want to clash with the club because that would have been ungrateful. It wouldn’t have been appreciative towards a club that welcomed me at 18 and gave me a lot over four years. And then I always want to be playing, to show that I’m a top player, that nothing fazes me, even a failed transfer, and that I can make the difference up until the final day.”
Mbappe disappointed about failed Madrid move
Mbappe admitted that he was disappointed at first that his move to Real Madrid didn’t go through this summer.
He also clarifies a number of lies that were brandished about in the media about him.
“At the time, I was a bit disappointed to stay,” he admitted.
“When your ambition is to leave and you stay, you’re not happy about it. But I quickly moved on. Unfortunately I got injured while on international duty. I came back quickly, I had the time to mourn over it while there weren’t any matches. When I came back, I scored and I performed well once again.
“Of course. Real made an offer. People said that I turned down six or seven renewal offers, no way! People were saying that I didn’t want to talk to Leonardo, even though it’s the president [Nasser Al-Khelaifi] who wanted to take things over. When I’m told to speak with the president, I’m not going to say no. People were saying I was planning on messing around in the dressing room – again, not at all.
“When your president says in front of the entire world that you’re not going to leave, nor leave on a free… at the time, I was a bit worried, I’m not going to lie. I said to myself, ‘if I’m not leaving on a free, what’s going to happen to me?’ After that, you distance yourself and tell yourself that it’s their way of showing their attachment. It means that the club likes me and won’t let me leave.”
Mbappe: Why I wanted to leave
Mbappe also explained specifically why he wanted to leave PSG, and says that his intention to move on has not changed at all since the end of the transfer window.
“I thought that my adventure [with PSG] was over,” he stated.
“I wanted to discover something else. I’d been in the French league six or seven years. I’ve given what I tried to at Paris and I think I’ve done it well. To arrive at 18 post-youth development and do everything I have, I think that’s something remarkable. But everyone is free to draw the conclusions they want but that’s my assessment. Leaving was the logical next step.
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“I am attached to Paris but if I had left this summer it would have only been for Real.
“I stayed and I’m really happy. At no point during the season will you hear behaviour along the lines of ‘you didn’t let me leave, I’m going to take it easy’. I have too much love for football and too much respect for the club and for myself, to take it easy even for one game.
— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) October 4, 2021
“With regard to my situation, we haven’t been discussing a renewal for a month and a half, two months, since I said I wanted to leave.
“I’ve been in football long enough now to know that yesterday’s truth is not necessarily today’s, nor tomorrow’s. If I was told that Messi was going to play at PSG, I wouldn’t have believed it, so you never know what’s going to happen.
“I think that most of all, I needed to explain myself. I had to put an end to the silence, and I said that I would do it. I owed it to the supporters, to football fans and those who read me. I couldn’t speak over the summer, that wasn’t possible.
Now the summer is over, I had to clarify things, and I think now is the right time.
“We’re far from [there being any chance of staying at PSG], seeing as I wanted to leave this summer. I’m not going to act like a hypocrite and send out a plea, like: ‘Oh, I don’t know’.
“This summer my ambition was clear, I wanted to leave and put the club in the best circumstances to bring in my replacement. Right now, my future is not my priority. I’ve already wasted a lot of energy this summer, it’s draining.”
Mbappe joined PSG in the summer of 2017 from Monaco and has scored 136 goals in 182 appearances, winning three Ligue 1 titles with the team.
