Real Madrid: Why Gareth Bale impacts a Kylian Mbappe transfer

Real Madrid will have to pull off something close to a miracle if they want to sign the most valuable player in world football this summer, but if there’s one person you’d bet on to do the unthinkable, then it is Real’s esteemed club president Florentino Perez. After all, he did something even wilder to win the job in the first place.

Kylian Mbappe is the kind of player who can transform a club, and he has both the quality and mentality of a Galactico. The PSG forward recently scored a hat trick at the Camp Nou, and the pearl of the 2018 World Cup is exactly what this front line needs.

But money is standing in the way from Real’s perspective. PSG would want something approaching 200 million euros for Mbappe, and the player himself could command upwards of 30 million euros per year, depending on what his current club offer. And we know that PSG have more money available than Mbappe.

According to a report from Marco Ruiz of AS, the Gareth Bale situation weighs heavily here, too. Bale is Real Madrid’s highest-paid player, as AS notes his salary is currently costing Los Blancos 30 million per season. Currently, the club legend is on loan at Tottenham, where the Premier League side is covering part of his wages.

Gareth Bale has been regaining his form at Tottenham recently

But if Bale returns to Real and cannot get a move elsewhere, Los Blancos would be on the hook for Bale’s full salary. How can they afford to pay both Bale and Mbappe 30 million euros during the pandemic? Ruiz makes it clear: They cannot. If they want Mbappe, they have to find a way to offload Bale’s salary.

The good news for Madridistas is that Bale has seemingly found his form again. We’ll need to see how he carries this form and how he plays against better competition, but the recent results are encouraging, including two goals and an assist over the weekend against Burnley.

While a bounced-back Bale would be more productive than Marco Asensio or Lucas Vazquez on the right-hand side, I’m sure most Madridistas would agree that they’d prefer Mbappe to Bale, especially in the long run. But of course, even if Real can find a willing landing spot for Marc Bartra’s worst nightmare, that does not guarantee they can pry Mbappe from PSG. There are still a lot of variables at play and much of the story of these respective transfer sagas to be told.