MADRID – Kylian Mbappé is finally a Real Madrid player.
Real Madrid said on Monday it had reached an agreement with the French star for the next five seasons, reuniting one of football’s greatest talents and its most successful club.
The announcement came after years of Real Madrid’s flirtation with the player who inherited Lionel Messi’s status as the best in the game.
“A dream come true,” Mbappe said at X. “I am very happy and proud to join the club of my dreams. No one can understand how excited I am right now. I can’t wait to see you Madridistas (Madrid fans), and thank you for your unbelievable support. Hala Madrid!”
The post was accompanied by a photo of a young Mbappé wearing a Real Madrid jacket.
The 25-year-old World Cup winner with France joins a Madrid squad that is already loaded with talent and is still celebrating its latest European triumph – and sixth in 10 seasons.
Just two days ago, Real Madrid won a record 15th European Cup title by defeating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the Champions League final in London.
Mbappé joins a team that already has young stars such as Vinícius Júnior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham.
Until now, Mbappé has only played football for French teams – first at Monaco and for the last seven seasons at Paris Saint-Germain, where he left as a free agent after failing to convince him to renew his contract. Mbappé I didn’t take the option for another year on the agreement he signed two years ago.
In 2021, Real Madrid were rejected after offering PSG a 180 million euros – the same amount PSG paid Monaco for a teenage Mbappé years earlier.
Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez made signing Mbappé a strategic priority for the club, as the powerhouse was unable to secure him when Mbappé visited the club’s facilities at the age of 14.
Instead, he opted to join Monaco’s youth academy and became a teenage sensation when he helped lead the Principality club to the Champions League semi-finals in 2017.
Qatar-backed PSG turned down Real Madrid’s offer for 2021, but with Mbappé’s contract expiring the following year, Real Madrid took it for granted that Mbappé, who has never hidden his desire to one day play for the Spanish club, would come to the south of the Pyrenees in 2022.
But French President Emmanuel Macron encouraged him to stay, and Mbappé surprised Pérez and most of the football world by signing a contract extension to “continue your adventure” in Paris.
Real Madrid won the 2022 Champions League after defeating Mbappé’s PSG in the qualifiers.
Pérez said after Mbappé turned down his club two years ago that perhaps it would have been better if he hadn’t come, but there were no bridges burned and Real Madrid are signing a once-in-a-generation player as a free agent.
Mbappe’s CV includes winning the World Cup at 19, a World Cup final hat-trick at 23, seven French leagues, four French Cups and a proven ability to dominate games with his goalscoring prowess.
Mbappé is France’s captain. When they won the World Cup in 2018, he was the second teenager after Skin mark on a World Cup Final. Four years later, he was one of the only two players in history to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final as France fell to Messi’s Argentina.
Mbappé was unable to lead PSG to their ultimate goal of the Champions League title, losing the only final he played in in 2020. He also failed to score in both semi-final matches against Dortmund this season.
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Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona.
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