Kylian Mbappé is now in his third season at Real Madrid, wearing the iconic number 10 shirt for the second year running. But that love affair with Los Blancos could have started nine years ago if Paris Saint-Germain hadn’t intervened. The arrival of Neymar at PSG proved to be the turning point that tipped the scales in the Parisians’ favour, as revealed by former teammate Thiago Silva last season.
Everything accelerated for Kylian Mbappé during the 2016/2017 campaign, his first full season with AS Monaco. On the Rock, the young prodigy from Bondy powered his team to the Champions League semi-finals, eliminating Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Thomas Tuchel’s Borussia Dortmund along the way. Meanwhile, Monaco clinched their eighth Ligue 1 title, ending a 17-year drought. Mbappé was instrumental in temporarily halting PSG’s domestic dominance since 2013. That was the first pivotal moment of his career.
Why PSG? Because it’s my hometown club
At just 18, only months shy of his 19th birthday—which he could have celebrated as a Real Madrid player alongside his idol Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Sergio Ramos—Kylian Mbappé made the bold decision to reject Florentino Pérez’s advances, despite a €180M offer. PSG matched that bid in the final stretch of the summer transfer window. In December 2018, Mbappé opened up to Marca about how the saga unfolded. A particularly satisfying conclusion. “Why did I choose PSG? Because PSG is my hometown team. It’s like a kid from Madrid who has the chance to play for Real and goes elsewhere, to another country. No, no, I wanted to play for PSG and I’m very happy with how things are going. There were a lot of transfer rumors, sure we talked, but I think that’s in the past for me and for Real Madrid. Now I play for PSG and I’ll defend these colors 100%.”
He came to me after the match and said: ‘If Neymar comes, I want to come too’
Kylian Mbappé didn’t just choose Paris Saint-Germain because of his ties to the Paris region. His former PSG captain revealed a previously secret conversation with Mbappé after the 2017 Trophée des Champions. Thiago Silva shared with Ligue 1+: “I remember the Trophée des Champions against Mbappé’s Monaco very well. After the match, he came up to me and said: ‘If Neymar comes, I want to come too. You can talk to the president about it. I want to be part of this team too.’ Neymar signed, and Mbappé arrived.”
An incredible friendship formed from the start
The scales tipped in PSG’s favour for Kylian Mbappé, largely due to the presence of Neymar, who had joined from FC Barcelona earlier that August for a record €222M. The two forged a close bond that eventually faded over time. “An incredible friendship formed from the start. Then a few years later, what happened happened. I’m a bit disappointed by how things turned out. It should have been different.”