Harry Fletcher
Jul 25, 2023
content.jwplatform.com
Kylian Mbappe could be on the brink of securing a move to Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal, becoming the highest paid player in the history of professional football.
Reports have given an insight into the numbers involved in the offer, and they are truly mind-boggling.
The French international, who is still only 24, is already on a huge contract at PSG and earns around £2 million a week.
However, that is a paltry amount compared to what he could be earning at Al-Hilal, which is majority owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
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Mbappe has decided not to sign a new one-year extension at the French giants, and given that the side don’t want to let him go for nothing when his contract expires they’ve reportedly accepted Al Hilal’s £259m offer.
The World Cup winner is said to be keen on a move to Real Madrid in 2024, but he could be tempted to take the one-year offer from the Saudi side before moving to Spain further down the line.
According to reports from CBS, the offer from Al Hilal is a staggering £604 million per year, which breaks down to £11.62 million per week – an increase of around six times his current PSG contract.
Oisin Keniry/Getty Images
Those numbers are astounding, but almost too large to appreciate. It’s only when you drill down into the figures that the true size of the offer becomes really clear.
The offer breaks down to £1.65m per day, £68,950 per hour and £19.15 per second, and we can barely get our heads around the scale of it all.
An hour’s work for him would be more than twice what most people earn in an entire year in the UK. In fact, If he dropped a 20 pound note on the floor, he would have earned it back about five times over by the time he stopped to pick it up.
Some have questioned his motivation, should the deal go through. Mbappe would be giving up Champions League football and effectively sacrificing the chance of winning the Ballon D’or for the year – some would even argue he’s essentially taking a year-long retirement due to the standard of the league compared to what he’s used to – but there’s no doubt that the numbers are enormous.
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