Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s Ander Herrera has revealed that Kylian Mbappe had already expected to stay back at the Parisian club during the final weeks of the transfer window despite strong interest from Real Madrid and the Spaniard is hopeful that his team-mate can sign a new contract with the club.<\/p>\n
Los Blancos allegedly made three final-week bids \u2013 albeit disputed by PSG sporting director Leonardo – in an attempt to snap up the 22-year-old, but the French giants refused to budge and were even openly disdainful of the bids.<\/p>\n
Leonardo said before the first bid of\u00a0\u00a3137m was lodged on August 25 that Mbappe had the desire to leave\u00a0for the Spanish capital, but Herrera told El Larguero in quotes carried by AS that the France star already realized by that point that his immediate future lay at the Parc des Princes and claimed that the club\u2019s prize asset had already decided he would stay.<\/p>\n
‘I had an intuition that he was staying,’ said Herrera. ‘This is what he and the club were telling us. I asked him two weeks before the market ended and he said: “I’m here.”<\/p>\n
‘Everything I saw did not marry up with what was happening here. What happens this season may affect Mbappe saying.’<\/p>\n
Despite Leonardo\u2019s public admission that Mbappe wanted to leave, the \u00a3137m figure was way too low and that Real Madrid had also made an ‘illegal’ approach for the player – all of which were in fact taken as an affront by the French club.<\/p>\n
The second bid of \u00a3154m was met with silence before a widely-unsubstantiated figure of \u00a3189m was tabled on the final day of the window.<\/p>\n
From the mere looks of it, Mbappe appears set to move to the Bernabeu next summer, if he so desires, when his contract at PSG runs out, but the club now seem more optimistic that the player can be convinced to stay with Leonardo saying: ‘I don’t see Mbappe leaving at the end of the season.’<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"