Eduardo Camavinga has teased Real Madrid’s capture of Kylian Mbappe after the Frenchman made the decision to leave Paris Saint-Germain when his contract expires in June.
Mbappe is already reported to have agreed a five-year contract with Madrid that will pay him €15m per season, as well as a €150m signing bonus spread over the duration of the deal.
Despite him leaving as a free agent, PSG also won’t be left out of pocket either. Mbappe is agreed to return around €80m after deciding to let his contract run down, while his departure stands to save the French giants an estimated €200m next season.
Nothing is yet publicly confirmed, but Camavinga gave a less than subtle nod to the proceedings.
“The fact that there is always a French player in Real Madrid shows how many good French players there are. I hope we can have more of them here with us soon,” Camavinga joked this week, as reported by Spanish outlet Defensa Central.
Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni and Ferland Mendy make up the current French contingent at the Bernabeu. But the path from France to Spain’s capital is one well-travelled – just asked French prince Philippe, Duke of Anjou, crowned Philip V of Spain in 1700. Although that sparked a bloody war that lasted 13 years and sucked in most of Europe…and he’s been dead for nearly three centuries.
In the 21st century alone, Zinedine Zidane, Raphael Varane and Karim Benzema are all legends of the Bernabeu. Claude Makelele was famously the glue that held the first Galacticos together, while Christian Karembeu and Nicolas Anelka each won Champions League titles.
The first Frenchman to play for Madrid, before even the club had been awarded its Real status by the Spanish crown, was Rene Petit in 1914 when most of the rest of Europe erupting in a new war.
But the first true French star of Real Madrid was Raymond Kopa, signed by the club in the wake of facing them while playing for Reims in the first ever European Cup final in 1956. He was ultimately only at the club for three years but his wider football legacy still burns brightly, with the Kopa Trophy named in his honour when it was created in 2018 to recognise the world’s best young player.
Mbappe won that prize in its first year, while Camavinga was a runner-up in 2022.
