Paris Saint-Germain are unlikely to make any concrete moves towards signing Rafael Leao from AC Milan until they know where Kylian Mbappe will be playing his football next season.
As has been reported by Fabrizio Romano (via CaughtOffside), the French side are not going to be showing their hand when it comes to signing Leao until later in the season.
The ongoing story around the Ligue 1 champions is whether Mbappe will sign a new contract, or head for a new challenge at a club like Real Madrid.
One thing that would potentially work in PSG’s favour when it comes to signing Leao from Milan is the connection between the Portuguese player and their transfer chief, Luis Campos.
Leao was one of Campos’ key signings at Lille, so it is already known that they have worked together and he is a major fan of the 24-year-old.
It would take a very big fee for Leao to leave Milan given he so recently signed a new contract, so PSG almost certainly wouldn’t try to sign him until they knew that Mbappe was definitely on his way out of the club.
Discussing the Leao PSG links, Romano said to CaughtOffside: “I’m aware there have been some links with Rafael Leao and PSG. Luis Campos is the director who signed Leao at Lille, one of his incredible signings, so appreciating him is normal, but at PSG summer plans will be made in the next months.
“It’s still early to predict what they will do, it depends on how this season will go and also on the Kylian Mbappe situation.”
Milans sell will impact Milan only positively…let PSG have this sprinter without a brain who can’t score.
Mbappe switch to madrid, think leao will be at PSG. Time to sold him with the highest price.
Straight swap plus 30 mil. Moncada and mbappe together again. Mbappe playing for 150k per week because of the love of the shirt and the dream of dragging this team back to where it belongs. Sorry, got caught dreaming then…in real life we know we’d get rid of Leao on a loan with obligation to buy at 70m and inter will get mbappe on 450k per week and get rescued by a Saudi club the same year becoming one of the richest clubs in the world overnight, winning everything…sorry was just having a nightmare
Don’t forget that this management proclaimed Leao as the new leader of the team, with number 10 and everything. This is good for the brand, Leao will sing at next year’s Super Bowl halftime show and we’ll have a Leao’s attraction in the new stadium’s themed-park.
Also don’t forget that Leao is one of the protected players, like Tonali.
If we sell Leao or any more of the remaining core of Scudetto winners then that’s it.
Any hope of returning to anywhere near the levels we once were are dashed until we get new owners.
I will never ask for money but I will ask that they keep what we have and build on it however slowly.
Yep, sell Leao or any of the remaining scudetto winners and that’s it. Game over. We’ll never win it again. Might as well wind down the whole club. /s
If you will never ask for money why would our hopes be dashed until we get new owners? Wouldn’t they be bringing money? And if they bring money, wouldn’t we be making signings all the time? Wouldn’t that violate your dogma? Or did you mean new owners with no money, who would never be able to sign anyone? I guess that way we’d only ever promote primavera players. Your dream come true!
I hear you, I really do, but your comments on transfers always blame the club and the fans but never the player.
You assume that a player like Leao will continue to happily bank his circa 5m net a year and wait for Milan to “slowly” build up to regularly winning meaningful silverware. He won’t. PSG will treble his salary, all but guarantee him a yearly league medal and bonus, and show him a pretty decent UCL record (and sell him on the idea of improving it further). They will also present him with better image rights deals and exposure – that doesn’t matter to you or I, but it probably matters to him.
Is it ugly and anti-football? Yes. I it avoidable? Realistically, no.
We could force him to see out his contract whilst underperforming and then los him on a free or we can accept that this stage of his career (HIS career, to do what he wants with) is over and take the silly money being quoted as small comfort.
That’s not something that is exclusive to our owners. The fact is that every club on the planet is a selling club when the buying club is one of the top 5-6 richest. The only way to not be, is to become one of them, which in turn is it ugly and anti-football.
Same thing I always say…we can be humble and local OR we can have superstars and win stuff. I’d accept either to be honest, but both is absolutely not a thing in 2024.
There’s nothing ‘anti-football’ about rich clubs buying the best players. In case you had forgotten, we started that trend under Berlusconi. It’s pure hypocrisy to moan about money given our history.
Yes @Maldinis Heir, selling players are bad. By default and without ANY exceptions. /S
Of course it makes good sense to sell Leao for +100 mill Euro, regardless of his form this season, or lack of same.
Think what Tottenham did after they sold Bale to RM. Think what ACM did after we sold Tonali to Newcastle last year. Unless you are a top EPL club, RM or Bayern M, selling players are a natural part of your business. Barcelona included. So for ACM Tto sell our best player, is no shame.
Milan have leverage from the new contract and release clause. He’s been underperforming this season. If his form keeps this way until the end of the campaign and PSG want to come in with a nice offer, I regrettably would agree it’s time to sell. Love Leao, but the funds would be able to more than reinforce his position as well as bolstering others.