Mbappe to Real Madrid opens up Ronaldo to PSG

FT Desk

• 11 Oct 2022 12:55 CDT
• 6 min read

Kylian Mbappe is pushing to leave PSG in January, with Lionel Messi set to follow him out the door next summer. Cristiano Ronaldo's next Champions League-playing destination is becoming clearer.

Real Madrid thought a deal for Mbappe was in the bag earlier this year, with planning for his announcement at the Bernabeu already put into place when the Frenchman performed an about-turn, signing a contract extension with Paris Saint-Germain in May.

The forward was given a €100 million signing on fee, offered €50m per season for the next three years, and given hitherto unsees influence for a player at the Parc des Princes… or so he thought.

But Christophe Galtier, who won the Ligue 1 title with Lille in 2021, has come in with his own ideas, and, partly out of necessity with no No.9 having been signed in the summer, has played Mbappe at the point of the PSG attack, with Neymar and Lionel Messi tucked in behind him.

Eleven goals in 12 games may suggest that Mbappe is flourishing this season, but he intimated his unhappiness when on international duty with France recently.

Mbappe frustrated up front

"I play differently, they ask other things of me here than at my club. He said. "I have a lot more freedom here. The coach knows that there's a No.9 like Olivier [Giroud], who keeps defences occupied.

"Me, I can walk around, get into space, ask for through balls. In Paris, it's different not having that. I'm asked to be a pivot which is different."

And he followed that up with an Instagram post following last Saturday's goalless draw with Reims with a picture of himself and a sarcastic hashtag of #pivotcrew.

Mbappe clearly doesn't want to be leading the line any longer at PSG, and with Messi out of contract at the same time as former club Barcelona are erecting a statue of him outside Camp Nou, there is going to be space for a superstar in the Paris frontline.

Perhaps ironically, Neymar now looks like the most likely to stay in the French capital, but he'll need company, and Ronaldo could well be it.

Ronaldo's Champions League solution?

His desire to leave Manchester United in the summer was well-documented, the Red Devils unable to offer Champions League football to a player who has scored a record 140 goals in it.

PSG and Ronaldo could be the perfect marriage. Ligue 1 is some four places and 39,739 points below the Premier League in the latest UEFA coefficients, but the pace of French football - or lack thereof - could suit the 37-year-old, who maintains his flair for the big occasions.

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Ronaldo has two goal-involvements in the Europa League this season and came off the bench to score his record 700th career club goal as the Red Devils beat Everton 2-1 on Sunday, and if anyone doubts the idea, Zlatan Ibrahimovic's experience in Paris could serve as a good example.

The big Swede, who spent much of the last generation with only Ronaldo and Messi ahead of him in the pecking order of world football's best attackers, enjoyed an Indian summer in Paris, plundering 156 goals and 61 assists in 180 games for them between the ages of 30 and 35.

If Mbappe to Real Madrid happens, Ronaldo to PSG could make perfect sense.