Just before Paris Saint-Germain faced Benfica in the Champions League, news broke in both Spain and France that Kylian Mbappé wants to leave the Ligue 1 side.
Real Madrid were immediately touted as his next destination, but it was also said the La Liga giants might struggle to hold talks with their French counterparts, leaving Liverpool as an option.
It’s no secret that the Reds have been after the Frenchman for a while, often being said to be a preferred destination of his in England should he not manage to land in Madrid, and this continues to this day.
Le Parisien have an article in their newspaper on Wednesday, detailing what could happen with Mbappé, explaining that Real Madrid and Liverpool are ‘always the same options’ for the 23-year-old.
The Reds are said to be ‘behind’ in the race, as the Spanish side are ‘two or three lengths ahead’, but ‘several obstacles’ stand in their way.
Two of those are financial, as Florentino Pérez wants to keep the club’s accounts healthy and any transfer in January would be somewhere around €160-200m at least.
Beyond the monetary aspect, the relationship between Madrid and Paris is now ‘far from being friendly, if not calamitous’.
That’s where Liverpool come in, but Jürgen Klopp’s side are currently 10th in the Premier League and not exactly thriving in the Champions League.
Despite that, ‘financially, after a balanced summer transfer window, they have the capacity to offer more than €150m to Paris Saint-Germain’.
The questions then asked is ‘do they want to?’, and will the French club ‘accept to negotiate with the English?’
We’ll have to wait and see.
