{"id":12007,"date":"2023-07-24T20:08:50","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T20:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=12007"},"modified":"2023-07-24T20:08:52","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T20:08:52","slug":"saudi-arabian-club-al-hilal-submits-world-record-332-million-bid-for-kylian-mbappe-according-to-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/24\/saudi-arabian-club-al-hilal-submits-world-record-332-million-bid-for-kylian-mbappe-according-to-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal submits world record $332 million bid for Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, according to reports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Saudi Arabian<\/a> soccer club Al Hilal has submitted a world-record bid<\/a> of over $332 million (300 million euros) for Paris Saint Germain (PSG) striker Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a>, according to multiple reports on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 24-year-old has been left out of PSG\u2019s squad for its preseason tour of Japan, with the club having issued him an ultimatum to sign a new contract or be sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNN has reached out to PSG, Al Hilal and Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s representatives for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current world record fee is $262 million (\u20ac222 million) when Neymar moved from Barcelona to PSG in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite publicly declaring he wants stay in Paris for the upcoming 2023\/24 season, Mbapp\u00e9 is said to be unhappy in the French capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to multiple reports in June, Mbapp\u00e9 informed PSG that he will not be exercising his third-year option in his contract, leaving the club with a decision to make \u2013 sell their star player this summer or let him walk for free in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi outlined the club\u2019s stance over the Frenchman\u2019s future during a press conference held to welcome the team\u2019s new head coach Luis Enrique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur position is very clear \u2013 very clear. If Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 wants to stay, we want him to stay. But he needs to sign a new contract,\u201d Al-Khelaifi told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe cannot let the best player in the world right now leave for free. That is impossible. This is a French club, and as he has said, he is not planning to leave for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf somebody has changed his mind, it is not our fault. We are not going to let one of the best players in the world leave for free. It is very clear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

French media outlet L\u2019Equipe reported<\/a> on Monday that PSG\u2019s owners are ready to accept the proposal from Al Hilal, which reportedly includes a $775 million (700 million euros) wage packet for Mbapp\u00e9, and have allowed the Saudi club to speak with the World Cup winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While PSG seems ready and willing to sell the French superstar, Mbapp\u00e9 ultimately has control of which club he plays for as he is under contract for the year and can veto any move if it doesn\u2019t meet his approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanish giant Real Madrid has been heavily linked with Mbapp\u00e9 ever since almost signing the French international striker ahead of the 2022\/23 season and is reportedly the Frenchman\u2019s ideal landing spot if he were to leave Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A move to Saudi Arabia would be a major boost to the country\u2019s ambitions to create a competitive soccer league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new SPL season kicks off on August 11. Al Hilal reached both the FIFA Club World Cup and the AFC Champions League finals last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced that Al Hilal was one of four Saudi clubs that have been transformed into companies, each of which is owned by PIF<\/a> and non-profit foundations for each club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PIF is a government-controlled fund that has $650 billion in assets under management, according to its most recent filing. It is aiming to top $1 trillion within a few years. A state-owned investment fund like the PIF is not unique. It is ranked only the seventh-largest in the world, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some of those are pension funds for a country\u2019s citizens or public employees, others, like the PIF, operate the way a private sector investment firm might, trying to make money through a diversified portfolio of investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what makes Saudi Arabia\u2019s fund different from those private investment firms is that since the country faces widespread condemnation for its human rights record, its investments in sports and other entertainment companies can be seen as \u201csportwashing\u201d \u2013 an attempt to polish that tarnished reputation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saudi Arabian soccer club Al Hilal has submitted a world-record bid of over $332 million (300 million euros) for Paris Saint Germain (PSG) striker Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, according to multiple reports on Monday. The 24-year-old has been left out of PSG\u2019s squad for its preseason tour of Japan, with the club having issued him an ultimatum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-6.png?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12009,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007\/revisions\/12009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}