No official transfer bids have yet been made; having said that, Transfermarkt places Mbappé's likely transfer fee at an eye-popping €180 million. Were he to be sold at such a fee, Mbappé's transfer would be the second-most expensive in football history, only trailing that of his would-be ex-teammate Neymar who left Barcelona for PSG after PSG paid the Catalan club €222 million in 2017.
During his six years at his hometown club, Mbappé has progressed from an enticing young prospect to one of the all-time greats. At just 24, Mbappé already has a World Cup title and a Nations League title on the international front. At club level, he has won Ligue 1 five times and the Coupe de France three times with PSG. He is a perennial Ballon d'Or contender and has already scored almost 300 career goals at all levels in all competitions. However, in spite of all this success, the one title he most desperately seeks continues to elude him: the Champions League.
Year after year after year, PSG seem to find new and more spectacular ways to underperform on Europe's biggest stage. Apart from a run to the final in the pandemic-stricken 2019-20 season, Mbappé has experienced failure time and again in the Champions League. At this point, PSG choking in the Champions League is almost an inevitability. This fact only makes Mbappé's impending move to Real even more likely.
After losing in the semifinals of last season's Champions League, Real wasted almost no time in loading up for next season's campaign. Last month, Real signed English midfielder Jude Bellingham for €103 million. Having just had a breakout season at Borussia Dortmund while also playing an excellent World Cup, the 20-year-old Bellingham appears set to be one of the world's best midfielders for at least the next decade if not longer. Bellingham has joined the likes of Federico Valverde, Vinícius Júnior, Rodrygo, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Eduardo Camavinga to form by far the best young core in world football. The addition of Mbappé would all but guarantee Real at least two Champions League titles over the next five or six seasons. It would almost certainly give birth to a new dynasty at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Real have also just seen club legend Karim Benzema leave for Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad, leaving a gaping hole up front. While Mbappé is not primarily a centre-forward, he is more than capable of playing the position. Mbappé would likely take up the role of the "false nine" at Real - a position filled by Neymar and Lionel Messi at various points during Mbappé's time at PSG.
By signing for Real, Mbappé would also likely exponentially increase his chances of winning two major individual honours which he has never claimed - the Ballon d'Or and the European Golden Shoe. Five times over the past six seasons, Mbappé has finished in the top four of the Ballon d'Or rankings with a personal best of fourth in 2018. Mbappé has also been in the top five of the European Golden Shoe leaderboard four times in five seasons including two second-place finishes and one third-place. At Real, he would almost certainly be guaranteed multiple Champions League titles which would exponentially elevate his Ballon d'Or chances. Additionally, playing with a team stacked to ungodly levels like that which Real would have with him on board would lead to a plethora of goalscoring opportunities and thus put him in prime position to chase the European Golden Shoe as well.
From Kylian Mbappé's perspective, joining Real Madrid has absolutely no downsides, especially when considering that PSG have almost certainly hit their ceiling and have no further room for improvement. Mbappé has the opportunity to establish himself as the centrepiece of an iconic, dynastic team - something only very, very few footballers will ever be able to do.
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