Can Liverpool really pay Kylian Mbappé 200 million euros? Transfer fee, wages and FSG strategy explained – Liverpool Echo

It may have been a while since it was last mentioned, but the link between Kylian Mbappé and Liverpool has been re-established.

If rumors of Mbappé’s departure from Paris Saint-Germain have been circulating in recent years, you can almost be sure that the Reds will soon be named as potential candidates, however imaginative such a move may be.

Links between the French star and the Reds are long-established, from Mbappé’s admission that Liverpool are his mother’s favorite team and Reds boss Jurgen Klopp’s vocal admiration for the 24-year-old’s talents have highlighted Anfield as a potential destination for some time now.

Those rumors were seemingly put to bed earlier in 2022 when Mbappé, who had been involved in some ridiculous game of cat and mouse with Real Madrid, pledged his future to PSG. All that was needed was a €50 million annual salary, a reported €100 million signing bonus, full ownership of his image rights, and the intervention of French President Emmanuel Macron. All very normal.

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Mbappé’s previous deal at PSG was due to expire in the summer of 2022 and after a protracted PR strategy from both sides, he was expected to sign for Real Madrid. The Spanish side had offered a whopping €200 million for his services with just a few months to go, an offer PSG flatly refused.

Much to the chagrin of Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, a man eager to bring the ‘Galactico’ era back to the Spanish capital, Mbappé chose to stay in France.

But Mbappé and PSG are no longer in a happy marriage and talk of his departure remains dominant. The striker is reportedly looking to leave Paris, but Nasser Al-Khelaifi, PSG chairman and chairman of the club’s owners, Qatar Sports Investments, is ready to play hardball with his club’s star player, as vowed to the club earlier this week revelation from Luis Enrique as PSG boss that it would be “impossible” for him to leave on a free transfer at the end of next season.

This new development has made hearts beat faster and on Thursday Spanish journalist Edu Aguirre from the popular show El Chiringuito claimed that Liverpool had made a €200 million bid for Mbappé. As with the previous attempts to link Liverpool with a move from the France international, it seems far-fetched, not least because it seems almost set in stone that Real Madrid will try to be his next destination, something the Spanish media only too happy to watch. to see. It would not be impossible to increase potential transfer interest in a player by other clubs, when it may not be rooted in reality.

With a number of major European clubs on UEFA’s ‘watch list’ when it comes to possible breaches of Financial Fair Play, the signing of Mbappé is something that is not on the table at all for some. Liverpool, with a large amount of leeway when it comes to FFP due to their more frugal approach to transfer spending, are one of the clubs that could theoretically afford to bring the Frenchman out of the Parc des Princes. However, theory and reality are not the same.

The story surrounding Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group among some sections of the Reds fan base is that they are much tighter on their pockets than the owners of rival clubs. Player swaps have long been used to help offset transfer expenses, while wages, while growing significantly under FSG’s tenure, remain at around 60 to 65 percent of revenue, well below the recommended 70 percent UEFA cap .

The Reds broke their transfer record last summer with the signing of Darwin Nunez from Benfica in a deal that could be worth as much as £85 million. To bring in a player like Mbappé, the fee would have to be between £250 million and £300 million. That’s world record breaking, the kind of money that has so grotesquely disrupted the transfer market and contributed to the huge gulf that now exists between the biggest clubs and the rest.

But suppose FSG gives the go-ahead and moves on to the next phase, the small matter of his reported wages of around £800,000 a week – more than double what Mohamed Salah’s new deal is reportedly worth, things would take into consideration the farce. How would such amounts be divided between existing members, those seeking renewal and new signings? Amortized, the transfer cost over six years would be £300m, £50m, the annual sum Liverpool receive from their most lucrative guaranteed commercial deal, the front of shirt sponsorship from Standard Chartered.

But we continue. That’s agreed. We’re all here now. Oh, there’s the not-so-insignificant matter of PSG, backed by the almost limitless wealth of Qatar Sports Investments, agreeing to give Mbappé 100 per cent control of his image rights. Mbappé’s image rights issue surfaced with the French national team last year when he refused to support certain sponsors while on international duty.

The value of commercial deals for clubs like Liverpool is huge and part of that value is that companies are occasionally allowed to use players for promotional activities. If Mbappé has the option to simply decline certain sponsorships, then that will affect the potential value, especially if there is no point in tapping into the most marketable player a team could have.

Mbappe’s positioning as a Nike client has been mentioned, as has his friendship and respect for basketball icon, fellow Nike client and co-FSG owner LeBron James. Third-party sponsorship to see deals through is now within UEFA’s crosshairs, and while a simpatico relationship may get the two sides in the room, it won’t address the huge financial elephant lurking in the corner.

Then there’s the fact that Liverpool’s transfer priorities aren’t really in the final third, but in midfield and defence. It is where targeted investments will be made, and as Champions League football is not on the agenda this coming season, making smart and sensible hiring decisions to improve performance in 2023/24 would be the best course of action, especially for a club. with the owner keeping a close eye on the bottom line.

It’s a nice idea, but for a host of reasons, it’s something that’s not really rooted in reality, at least not in Liverpool’s reality. But we already knew that.

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