Kylian Mbappé's Father Reveals Why His Son Did Not Sign for Real Madrid in 2013
Kylian Mbappé's father Wilfrid has explained why the striking phenomenon decided against a move to Real Madrid as a youth player in 2013.
In quotes reported by Spanish publication AS, via ESPN, Wilfrid Mbappe discussed how the striker would "probably" have moved to Madrid had Zinedine Zidane not become assistant to the La Liga giants' then head coach, Carlo Ancelotti.
Mbappe enjoyed a sensational full debut season for Monaco, in which he headlined an exciting young side that blasted their club to a first Ligue 1 title in seventeen years, as well as the Champions League semi-finals.
And now the 18-year-old has all but secured a colossal move to French league giants Paris Saint-Germain, who will initially loan the player before being obligated to purchase him for £166.4m next summer.
But things could have turned out very differently for the Frenchman had he completed a move to Los Merengues in 2013. Indeed, as a 14-year-old he was flown over to Spain to visit the La Liga giants' facilities and meet figures such as forward Cristiano Ronaldo and current first-team boss Zidane, who was then in a supervisory role in the academy.
And according to Wilfrid, the deal collapsed following Zidane's promotion from the clubs youth academy.
"We had plenty of meetings with Monsieur Zidane but from the moment he became assistant coach to the first team [ahead of the 2013/14 season] I believed that he'd not have the right amount of time for Kylian," Wilfrid Mbappé explained
"If Zidane had stayed in charge of recruiting and looking after young talent like Kylian, we'd probably just have joined Madrid instead of Monaco."
