The next few days are going to be decisive for Opera Kylian Mbappé’s future. His possible signature for Real Madrid is a story that comes from afar. In fact, this started in the same summer in which he signed for PSG from Monaco in 2017. He had also a previous transfer to camouflage. The final decision of Mbappé can highly depend on some strategic operations of the FC Barcelona.
Five years later, Florentino Perez seems one step away from seeing his wish for Mbappe to don the white Real Madrid shirt come true. An operation that, if completed, will affect Barcelona, not only in the sporting aspect, due to the obvious impact that his arrival at the merengue forward will have; but also because of the side effects of ‘Mercato’ that the transfer of Kylian can cause.
Barcelona, which is trying to overcome its sporting crisis while weathering the economic crisis, has to make real balances. There are two names on its agenda that are key to restructuring the forward: Ousmane Dembélé and Robert Lewandowski.
The case of the former is well known. Dembélé’s agents and Barcelona’s representatives have not managed to bring positions closer in the last year and can play its last game as a Barcelona player this coming Sunday. Xavi Hernández bets on the Frenchman for his project, but everything depends on both parties getting an economic agreement that does not seem simple because they have not been able to reach it in the last two years.
As for Robert Lewandowski, the Polish striker is Barcelona’s big target for next season and after reaching a pre-agreement with the player, the club tries to close an agreement with Bayern Munich to liquidate the remaining year of his contract.
The Domino Effect
How would the signing of Kylian Mbappé by Real Madrid affect Barcelona? PSG, his current club, should enter the transfer market to sign a replacement that would minimise, in part, the impact of losing its most unbalanced striker.
And once Manchester City closed the signing of Erling Haaland and Juventus got ahead of everyone a year earlier by signing Dusan Vlahovic, the remaining options are very limited.
It is clear that Dembélé, with the letter of freedom under his arm, and Lewandowski, with a transfer range of between 25 and 40 million euros when he is free in 2023, are two possible signatures that are on the radar of PSG, with the ability to enter the bidding for their contracts with options to stand in the way of Barcelona.
