Kylian Mbappe to join PSG on loan ahead of £166m transfer next summer as Monaco bow to Ligue 1 rivals

Kylian Mbappe is on the verge on joining Paris Saint-Germain on a season-long loan deal ahead if a £166.4m transfer from Monaco next summer that will raise serious questions about Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations.

The 18-year-old France international has been linked with both Real Madrid and Manchester United over the last few months, but PSG look to have won the race to sign him in the same summer as their world record £200m deal for Neymar.

The move would almost certainly mean that PSG would fail Uefa’s FFP checks, given there are already concerns about their compliance following the Neymar transfer, but in an effort to avoid any sanctions the Parisians will only sign the striker on loan this season, with an obligation to buy him next summer for €180m.

Mbappe was dropped after Monaco’s opening Ligue 1 game of the season earlier this month, with Monaco manager Leonardo Jardim leaving him on the substitutes’ bench for the games against Dijon and Marseille, and France manager Didier Deschamps confirmed on Monday that he has been told that Mbappe will be “changing clubs” this summer ahead of the international fixtures against the Netherlands and Luxembourg over the next week.

“He’s changing club but staying in Ligue 1,” Deschamps told reporters. “The future will say if he’s made a good decision.

The hardest part is yet to come for wonderkid Mbappe
“Today he is still an AS Monaco player. That is the truth, not a spin, the truth.”

Given PSG have already spent £200m on Neymar this summer, the Mbappe deal will raise serious questions about PSG’s compliance with Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations that state European clubs must not make losses in excess of €30m [£26.8m] over the course of three years.

Uefa will not inspect PSG’s account until the summer of 2018 at the earliest given that the FFP deadline for this year has already passed on 17 June. They will therefore inspect the club’s finances next year in order to ensure that they have not breached the regulation.


If PSG were found guilty of such a rule breach when they are inspected next year, they could face a large fine or be expelled from European competition for a determined length of time, although any punishment is likely to be sever given the French club has already been sanctioned once before after failing a FFP check.

Uefa can also take action if a club is deemed to have acted in a way that intentionally tries to "circumvent the regulations" in order to prevent clubs from exploiting loopholes in the rules.

One way PSG can help themselves meet the FFP restriction is by selling players in the next four days, with Serge Aurier closing in on a move to Tottenham and one of Angel Di Maria or Julian Draxler also set to leave amid interest from Barcelona and Arsenal respectively.