'Born to play for Real' - Madrid chief 'trusts Mbappe will come'
Tom Weber
- Updated: 11 Oct 2023 07:37 BST
- 4 min read
Real Madrid Board of Directors member Jose Manuel Otero is confident that Kylian Mbappe will become a Galactico in 2024.
The closer we inch to January, the more nervous Paris Saint-Germain will become. Mbappe, their star man, still has not put pen to paper on a contract extension, so he will be free to choose his next club come the winter transfer window.
After a drawn-out summer saga that saw the Frenchman banished from the first team after it was leaked to the media that he wouldn't trigger his extension until 2025, the 24-year-old was eventually brought back into the fold and quickly looked like the same old Mbappe, scoring eight goals in his first five games across all competitions despite not having had a proper pre-season.
READ: 'It seemed like Mbappe was very close to joining' admits Real Madrid star
However, much like the team as a whole, Mbappe is now struggling for form, having not scored in his previous four outings, his longest such goal drought since 2018. After a summer rebuild, PSG are not yet firing on all cylinders and it is becoming clear that the Parisians can't satisfy their golden boy's sporting ambition.
Exit in 2024?
This makes his signing a new deal increasingly unlikely, which is something that is emboldening Real Madrid bosses like Jose Manuel Otero, who recently gave his thoughts on the matter on a Twitch stream.
“Mbappe had the opportunity to sign for Real Madrid this summer. To come he would have had to give up some very big bonuses that he had already agreed with PSG. In addition, a transfer fee would have been mandatory."
"The amount that would have had to be paid to have Mbappe a year before his contract expired was crazy. It didn't make sense to sign Mbappe a year earlier, although he was the chosen one for [Karim] Benzema's position.”
Mbappe was born to play for Real Madrid.
- Jose Manuel OteroREAD: Why Bellingham rejected massive Premier League move
“We hope that Mbappe's thought process is the same as [Jude] Bellingham's. I trust that he will come. Mbappe will achieve glory when he comes to Real Madrid. In the meantime, he will be wandering around."
"He will win a Champions League someday. Now it seems that PSG is less powerful than before because they no longer have such good players. Madrid guarantees security, a seriousness that brings results. I trust he will say yes when he is a free agent."
"Mbappe was born to play for Real Madrid, of course.”
