Ice ages haven\u2019t lasted as long as this.<\/p>\n
Kylian Mbappe<\/a> to Real Madrid\u2026 it has been a thing for about a decade at least.<\/p>\n The Athletic<\/em> was not even in existence when the pair began courting each other. Twitter was still fun<\/a> (and called Twitter), Taylor Swift hadn\u2019t heard of American football<\/a> and the closest thing we got to a global pandemic was from watching Contagion.<\/p>\n It has been an inexorably long saga, the very worst kind of transfer saga in fact, with endless posturing, incessant lies and spin and thousands upon thousands of stories claiming that it is finally happening.<\/p>\n Well now, once and for all, it surely is. Mbappe will leave PSG<\/a> and you\u2019d have to assume that next season, he will play in the Bernabeu (assuming another club doesn\u2019t have the opportunity to pip them and he ends up at, say, Osasuna<\/a>) and the football world can concentrate on talking about other stuff like, you know, football matches.<\/p>\n The world\u2019s best player will not rot in PSG<\/a>\u2019s reserves, believe it or not. He won\u2019t be put on gardening leave either. Instead, he\u2019ll play for the club he\u2019s wanted to play for forever and Real Madrid<\/a> will sign the player they\u2019ve wanted to sign forever. Imagine that.<\/p>\n If you think we have had it bad here, try living in Spain where the coverage has been akin to the kind we would get for the death of a royal family member in the UK.<\/p>\n In recent months, since Mbappe did not take up the option to extend his contract until 2025, things have gone feral. On TV and radio, whether Real Madrid are winning matches or losing matches, whether Jude Bellingham<\/a> is scoring goals or not, whether Carlo Ancelotti is staying as manager or leaving, Mbappe news trumps the lot.<\/p>\n Ancelotti will regularly face questions about Mbappe in press conferences, which you kind of expect. But Real Madrid players, Javier Tebas (the president of La Liga<\/a>), even Xavi and Joan Laporta over at Barcelona<\/a>, they have all been quizzed for their Mbappe opinions. Honestly, who cares? Other than the TV producers who need to quench an insatiable need for 24\/7 rolling football coverage.<\/p>\n Why would anyone want to know what Laporta thinks about another club signing another player? Just ask Nick Knowles what he thinks of the UK slipping back into recession while you\u2019re at it. It\u2019s pointless to the point of utter saturation, a stage we reached with this on\/off transfer yonks ago.<\/p>\n Front pages have been dominated by Mbappe in Spain for ages, focusing unremittingly on \u2018the decision\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cMbappe will want to play for Real Madrid,\u201d one Marca headline screamed in April 2020. Presumably \u201cin 2024\u201d was in the small print.<\/p>\n \u201cMbappe takes the step\u201d followed in September of that year, implying he was on his way to Madrid. Presumably just on holiday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe game of the summer\u201d was last year. Maybe they meant the Ashes<\/a>.<\/p>\n There has even been a saga within the saga, with Madrid feeling betrayed by Mbappe<\/a> when he chose to sign his last extension with PSG. Madrid fans said they wouldn\u2019t forgive Mbappe\u2026 for choosing to stay with his current employers. Grow up.<\/p>\n The journalists were at it too. Mbappe\u2019s decision to remain in Paris was called \u201cthe biggest mistake in his career\u201d; even if he won the Champions League<\/a> and another World Cup, it wouldn\u2019t be enough. Oh, and the fact he wanted to stay in the fifth-best league in the world indicated \u201che holds himself in very low esteem\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n That does feel like a very Real Madrid thing, though; sheer indignation at any player in the world daring to turn them down. It\u2019s a very special kind of attitude, one that has fuelled and exacerbated the dullest soap opera storyline since Ian Beale\u2019s weight loss struggles on Eastenders.<\/p>\n There has never been a moment when it did not seem as if Mbappe was heading to Real Madrid at some point soon. It has always been when, not if \u2014 even when he tweeted \u201cLIES\u201d about a report saying he wanted to join Real last summer. \u201cI have already said that I will continue at PSG where I am very happy,\u201d he added, while doing the David Brent long nose mime.<\/p>\n To be honest, we\u00a0say<\/em> it\u2019s a done deal, but no doubt we should be prepared for the next chapter. Which club will Mbappe join now that he has confirmed he is leaving PSG? Within minutes of today\u2019s news breaking, an odds comparison website sent out an email (in such a hurried fashion that the email subject mistakenly read \u201cKylian Mbappe set to leave Real in summer 2024\u201d) stating there was an \u201cimplied chance of 83.3 per cent\u201d that Mbappe was off to Madrid, but also a 3.8 per cent chance he could go to Barcelona, a move that would involve more lever pulling<\/a> than an octopus running a train station.<\/p>\n But for now, it feels like it\u2019s finally over. And when we see Mbappe, at last, holding aloft that famous all-white kit, we\u2019ll all be relieved. Unless it\u2019s Leeds United<\/a> on a Bosman from PSG in 2034.<\/p>\n (Top photo: Julien de Rosa\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n Do not fret, the saga is almost over (Franck Fife\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"go-deeper\"\/](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.theathletic.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=128,height=128,fit=cover,format=auto\/app\/uploads\/2024\/01\/25163243\/0112_MbappeProfile-1024x512.jpg\")
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\n Mbappe in 2022 committing his future to PSG for, well, another couple of years at least (Franck Fife\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n