PSG President Claims Others Offered More for Mbappe as He Defends Club's Huge Spending

Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaifi has revealed that other clubs actually offered Monaco more money to sign Kylian Mbappe, but the French prodigy was eager to join the project at Parc des Princes instead and return to his home city.

Real Madrid, Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona and Manchester City were all heavily linked with the 18-year-old before PSG wrapped up a loan deal that will become permanent next summer.

According to al-Khelaifi, Monaco could have accepted a bigger offer than the reported €180m fee, but Mbappe wanted to make his 'dream' of playing for PSG a reality.

"Some other clubs offered him more than us," the president told the Daily Telegraph.

"Every big club wanted him. But we explained to him our project and the ambition of the club and he's French, he's a Parisian and he had the club in his heart. He wanted to stay in France and defends the French colours in the Champions League. It's deep inside him.

"He wants to write history here and he has history here already - you saw pictures of him when he was here 10 years ago? A picture does not lie. He loves the club and it's his dream to play for Paris Saint-Germain."

Mbappe was PSG's second huge statement signing of the summer after Neymar joined from Barcelona in a world record €222m deal. As such, many have accused the club of bending Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, yet al-Khelaifi has insisted that revenues are way up.

"We have been working very hard for the past six years to build the revenues of the club and they have increased through ticketing, sponsoring, merchandising, match day and TV rights from €90m to approximately €500m, with the last two seasons running profits," he said.

"We now plan to continue to increase our revenue from between 20 and 40 per cent. We have a year to meet FFP criteria. We have until June 30 2018. So I tell everybody [else]: relax and think about your project. We think about building our project."

The president is proud of the fact that PSG are changing the landscape, with 85 million people in Brazil watching Neymar's official presentation on television and the club at risk of completely selling out of replica shirts because demand has simply been so high.