Manchester City plan to spend close to 300 million euros in strengthening their squad this summer, but they won’t be welcoming Kylian Mbappe to the Etihad given that the French forward has rejected their advances.
The 18-year-old has not yet decided if he’ll remain at Monaco for another season, but he is clear that whenever he does move on from the Stade Louis II that he wants to join Real Madrid.
His dream to play at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu is so strong that he has resisted the first serious interest to come his way, even turning down the chance to work with Pep Guardiola and to join forces with Gabriel Jesus in an exciting front two.
That is partly because of the Zinedine Zidane factor, with the French youngster keen to work with his idol.
“Zidane the player made me dream and still makes me still dream when I watch videos of him,” he said on Tuesday while on France duty.
“The coach is completely different, he is a great coach who has quickly achieved results and continues to develop.”
Dmitri Rybolovlev, the Monaco owner, is still determined to cash in on his star players – as he has already done by selling Bernardo Silva to City – but the need to sell isn’t as great as in previous summers and that makes Mbappe the man in charge of his own future.
When the time does come, a fee of 120m euros is likely to do the trick.
