Liverpool has long been linked with a move for PSG striker Kylian Mbappé and the Frenchman could be about to move clubs. A $333m mega transfer offer has been made.
Liverpool already had to be smarter in the transfer market than its peers. This summer, for instance, it has paid around a third of the money that Arsenal splashed on Declan Rice to bring in Alexis Mac Allister, and snapped up Dominik Szoboszlai unopposed.
In recent seasons, it has picked up the likes of Mohamed Salah and Ibrahima Konaté for mid-range fees and even when it has gone relatively big, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker have proven to be bargains.
That is why, despite it being much spoken about, a transfer move for Kylian Mbappé was never realistic. At the price that he would cost, in addition to the transfer fee, Liverpool would simply not be able to compete.
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It was always assumed that Mbappé would end up at Real Madrid and that remains pretty close to an inevitability, but it emerged today that there might be something of a diversion first.
The 24-year-old PSG forward was today the subject of a $333m (£259m/€300m) bid from Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal, according to Fabrizio Romano, which is worth around 35 per cent more than the previous world-record transfer fee. The Daily Mail now claims the French club has accepted the offer.
CBS Sports’ James Benge reports on Twitter that Mbappé has been offered a salary of $776m (£605m/€700m) per year, which works out at more than $2m per day, or $25 per second. In the time it took you to read just the previous sentence, Mbappé would have collected around seven or eight times the average hourly wage in the US. In total, for just one year of the world’s best player, Al Hilal is willing to spend $1.28bn (£1.00bn/€1.16bn).
Salary aside, if Mbappé does make the move — even just for a year before he could then join Real Madrid, as is seemingly planned anyway — then soccer is about to change significantly.
PSG would not have anticipated bringing in that sort of transfer fee for any player, let alone one with a year left on his contract. As a result, it would then have ample wriggle room when it comes to Financial Fair Play; significantly more than would have been the case.
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As Barcelona found when PSG smashed the previous world record to sign Neymar from them, only to overpay for Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembélé, getting the money in is only the step towards spending it properly. But Saudi Arabia’s investment could be about to skew what soccer looks like for the coming years.
If the region was able to snap up Mbappé, that would be a true game-changer. Cristiano Ronaldo, at the end of his career, and now Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and others who are younger is one thing, but the Frenchman is a superstar at the pinnacle of the game.
Yes, it would probably only be for one season, but the money is clearly there for Saudi Arabia to cause disruption. While there is still a long way to go until it can compete even with some of the lesser leagues around Europe, Mbappé would be a warning sign. Him going there could open the door for all sorts and for that price, the going rate would be inflated. That can work nicely in the case of certain sales, but less so when it comes to trying to buy for reasonable sums.
What can Liverpool do? Well, the answer, really, is not much. Henderson and Fabinho are going but talk of interest in Luis Díaz has, for now at least, subsided. It will take a long time before every player would want to jump ship and the sheer scale of the finances Saudi Arabia feels it needs to offer for Mbappé are proof of that.
But as Liverpool attempts to traverse the transfer market in a smart fashion, another part of the world where mega money is able to be splashed out is clearly here to stay. Newcastle United has been bought by the same fund and Chelsea, under US owner Todd Boehly, has shown no qualms when spending over the odds, paying more than $130m for Enzo Fernández.
As FSG and Liverpool seek to compete in an increasingly lavish transfer environment, the interest in Mbappé is the latest step forward in the realization of how significantly soccer could be about to change.
