Superstar Kylian Mbappé’s move to Real Madrid seemed a foregone conclusion, but the Frenchman has apparently made a U-turn: according to media reports, the attacker will extend his contract with Paris Saint-Germain.

According to media reports, French soccer world champion Kylian Mbappé will stay at Paris Saint-Germain. The 23-year-old has decided to extend the expiring contract by three years, it said. The striker wants to announce his decision after the French champions’ last game of the season against FC Metz in the evening.

The exceptional player had been courted by the Spanish champions Real Madrid in the past few months. Mbappé is said to have personally informed the Spanish club of his decision out of respect for Real President Florentino Pérez, the television station RMC Sport reported. In addition to a high net salary of 50 million euros net per year, his decision will now also bring him a large bonus for signing the contract. It should be over 100 million euros.

The head of the Spanish league, Javier Tebas, ranted on Twitter that the way the probably very expensive extension was an “insult” to football. PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi is “as dangerous as the Super League”. However, Real was one of the founding members of the very Super League that failed miserably last year.

Mbappé wanted to leave PSG last summer after superstar Lionel Messi was signed, for which he was booed by his own fans at the start of the season. Mbappé has been playing for the Parisians since the summer of 2017. He was initially loaned out by AS Monaco before being signed for €180m after a year.

He rose to become a superstar with the Parisians, but he and his star colleagues around Neymar and Messi did not win the longed-for Champions League title, despite the sheikh millions from Qatar. During his time in Paris, Mbappé won the French championship four times and the cup twice. In 2018 he became world champion with the French national team.

Mbappé has long been linked with Champions League finalists Real Madrid. Most recently, the 23-year-old Frenchman said he had “almost” decided where he would play next season and would announce that shortly. Now the time has apparently come.

Jürgen Klopp, on the other hand, recently declared a transfer of Mbappé to Liverpool FC to be unrealistic. The English Premier League club is “not part” of the discussions about the PSG player’s next step, the Reds’ German coach recently said.

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