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Will Mbappe bow to family pressure and sign for Saudi club Al Hilal?

Despite the staggering $776 m annual salary that is being offered the French star is emotionally drawn to playing for Real Madrid

Published: Tue 25 Jul 2023, 8:43 PM

Updated: Tue 25 Jul 2023, 8:50 PM

  • By
  • Leslie Wilson Jr.

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France's Kylian Mbappe will make history as the highest paid footballer should he join Saudi club Al Hilal. - Reuters

France's Kylian Mbappe will make history as the highest paid footballer should he join Saudi club Al Hilal. - Reuters

Not only is Kylian Mbappe an extraordinary football player, he is also multilingual.

He speaks fluent English, French and Spanish, the last of which is his favourite.


However, perhaps he might want to add Arabic to his pursuit of acquiring more language skills should he accede to the wishes of his family. The 24-year-old French player is being hotly pursued by football agents from Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal club with open cheque books.

According to latest reports Al Hial are offering to play his current club, PSG, $332 million to secure his services for a year. This even as Mbappe himself wants to play for Real Madrid, a club that won over his heart as a child.

However, tit appears that he extremely talented winger is under family pressure to take up the Saudi offer which will see him earn in excess of $700 million in one season, the highest any football has ever earned in history.

A tweet on social media revealed that the Cameroon-born player’s family is ‘ready to ACCEPT Al Hilal’s offer. (But) the player hasn’t decided yet.’

Mbappe is contractually bound to PSG until the end of the 2023-2024 season, and with the French club in no mood to let him go scot-free, he is most likely to be sold this summer.

Al Hilal have moved swiftly in this direction with agents havingvisited PSG to make them a proposal.

Mbappe is torn towards continuing his flourishing career with Spanish giants Real Madrid, who are not prepared to play a high-stakes poker game with Al Hilal.

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But how much say will his family have, is the question everybody will be asking.

As the clock ticks, his 100 million fans on social media will also be anxiously watching his next move just as intently as they did when he was in passion of the ball on the football pitch, making menacing moves towards the opponent’s goal.

leslie@khaleejtimes.com



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