According to the PA news agency, Paris St Germain has granted superstar striker Kylian Mbappe permission to speak with Al Hilal after the Saudi Arabian club made a world-record £259 million offer.
The 24-year-old has not signed a one-year extension to his current PSG contract, which means he will be a free agent next summer and will be allowed to leave for nothing.
The player, who helped France win the World Cup in 2018 and reached the final in Qatar last year, was left out of PSG’s pre-season tour to Japan.
PSG’s move made it evident to other clubs that the player was available for sale this summer, prompting Al Hilal’s massive 300 million euro proposal.
According to sources close to the French club, several clubs have expressed interest in the player in recent days, including Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Inter Milan, and Barcelona.
If the Al Hilal transaction goes through, it will surpass the world transfer record amount paid by PSG to Barcelona for Neymar in 2017, which was thought to be £200 million at the time.
PSG are believed to be adamant that Mbappe has signed a free transfer to Real Madrid next summer, with Parisian sources claiming he would receive a signing-on fee of 160 million euros (£138 million) if he ended his current deal and went to the Spanish capital in 2024.
A sale this summer would allow PSG to recoup their investment on Mbappe, whom they purchased for 180 million euros from Monaco and kept last summer on a lucrative new contract despite earlier interest from Real Madrid.
The ball is now squarely in Mbappe’s court to decide his future.
Al Hilal is one of four Saudi Pro League clubs now majority-owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund with over £500 billion in assets under management.
The club, along with three others under majority control by the PIF, have already made significant investments in the European transfer market this summer, but acquiring Mbappe, arguably the best player on the planet at the moment, would be the most significant statement of Saudi Arabian strength yet.
Meanwhile, NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo has offered himself as a replacement for the Frenchman in a mocking Twitter post, writing: “Al Hilal, you can take me.” “I look like Kylian Mbappe,” the man responded with a succession of sobbing with laughter emojis.
