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Today's exclusive column, featuring the latest on the Kylian Mbappe saga...

Real Madrid confident over Kylian Mbappe transfer

Real Madrid are working hard on the Kylian Mbappe deal - they are advancing with confidence, even if nothing has been signed yet. Obviously I’ve had a lot of questions about this deal as several outlets have made strong claims on the Mbappe situation, so I wanted to clarify with my understanding of where it stands with Mbappe and Real Madrid.

As one of the biggest names in world football, we hear lots of stories about Mbappe in almost every transfer window, with sources saying he’s going here or he’s going there, so it’s not the first time we’ve had reports like this.

I respect all the information that’s out there but I’m just here to say what I’m hearing and the crucial point that an important formal step will be Mbappe’s formal communication to PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi. It’s not just a formal step, it’s a crucial step because that’s what they decided in the summer after what had been a very tense situation at the club when he was not travelling with the squad, missing pre-season with the team.

The only way out of this was to make a pact, so Mbappe made a pact with PSG and said he was prepared to lose out on an €80m loyalty bonus. So if he joins Real Madrid, PSG will not pay the €80m loyalty bonus, but part of this gentleman’s agreement as well is that Mbappe has to inform Al-Khelaifi before anyone else of his decision. This is a key part of keeping a good relationship in the next steps of the story.