Is it nearly over? Mbappé to Real Madrid and other way-too-long transfer sagas

With news that Kylian Mbappé has informed Paris Saint-Germain of his intention to leave the club this summer and sign for Real Madrid, fans around the world can now breathe a collective sigh of relief that the end is finally nigh for one of the modern game’s most protracted transfer sagas.

Mbappé’s contract is set to expire at the end of the season and it would appear that the striker has finally decided the time is right to join Los Blancos, the one club he has been relentlessly linked with more than any other over the past few years.

Sources told ESPN’s Julien Laurens this month that Mbappé had made a final decision over his future and that he was eager to move to the Bernabéu, though the 25-year-old had not informed either club as to his career aspirations.

But on Thursday Mbappé verbalised his intentions to PSG and, in all likelihood, will join Madrid when he becomes a free agent in June, thus bringing to a merciful end the Spanish giant’s prolonged pursuit of the coveted France international.

Mbappé has made no secret of his desire to play for Real Madrid and even had a trial with them as a young teenager in 2012. Strange to think that, had Real opted to take the plunge back then, they may have saved themselves (and all of us) an awful lot of time, money and effort.

The story joins the list of strung-out sagas that we’ve had to endure for whole summers, entire seasons and even longer in recent years — some of which never even made it out of the gossip columns.

– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

Michael Jadon. pic.twitter.com/Jp1xXUG4wX

— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) January 11, 2024

Manchester United’s quest to sign Sancho from Borussia Dortmund reached “saga” status just before the start of the 2020-21 season. Following many months of rumours, the Bundesliga club ran out of patience after weeks of painstaking negotiations and walked away from the table when United refused to meet their initial €120 million asking price.

Speculation then rumbled on for a further year until the two teams finally ceded and struck a deal in July 2021 which saw Sancho eventually move to Old Trafford in a five-year deal worth around €85m.

But, after a reasonable start to life at United, it soon came to pass that Sancho fell out of form and then out of favour entirely under manager Erik ten Hag. After a spell in which he was frozen out of the first-team squad, a loan return to Dortmund in January provided an escape from his Premier League purgatory. The England international celebrated by echoing Michael Jordan’s famous two-word statement when he returned to the Chicago Bulls in 1995: “I’m back.”

Mi afición, mi equipo, MI CASA! @atleti 🔴⚪🔴

Mes supporters, mon équipe, MA MAISON ! @AtletiFR 🔴⚪🔴

My fans, my team, MY HOME!!! @atletienglish 🔴⚪🔴 pic.twitter.com/ByD8Cju5Yb

— Antoine Griezmann (@AntoGriezmann) June 14, 2018

Who can forget the LeBron James-inspired minidocumentary commissioned by Atlético star Griezmann when speculation over a possible move to Barcelona began to gather pace in the summer of 2018.

The France forward produced a short film that showed him openly discussing his future with friends and members of his family only to build to the grand reveal that he had decided to stay put at Atleti with the message: “My fans, my team, MY HOME!!!”

Several months later came a second announcement from Griezmann that he had changed his mind and now intended to leave the club after all and, sure enough, the enormous €120m transfer to Barça happened the following year.

Neymar (Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain)

Se queda. pic.twitter.com/RtPHUr9iTH

— Gerard Piqué (@3gerardpique) July 23, 2017

As if his original transfer from Santos to Barcelona wasn’t fractious enough, Neymar really upped the ante when he decided he wanted to leave for PSG in the summer of 2017. PSG eagerly activated the Brazil forward’s €222m release clause but LaLiga rejected the payment, citing FFP violation issues and sparking an intense quarrel between everybody involved. Despite Gerard Pique’s insistence that Neymar was staying put, the world-record transfer eventually went through in early August 2017.

Then, two years later, Neymar decided he’d had enough at PSG and wanted to move back to Barcelona, kicking off another three months of headlines that continued to bubble away throughout the summer of 2019. Alas, Barça and PSG couldn’t make things work and Neymar was forced to stay put, riding things out until August 2023 when he completed a transfer to Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal.

Four years after leaving for just £800,000, Pogba finally made his grand return to United in 2016 in a world-record transfer that landed Juventus a cushy £88m profit on their investment. The clamour for his signature created months of fuss, with Juve dangling a new contract and Real Madrid also sniffing around just to complicate matters further. However, Pogba chose to listen to his mother and went back to Old Trafford with the intention of fulfilling his “destiny.”

It took so long for the deal to be struck that most people had fallen asleep when the official announcement video featuring Stormzy, which ranks as one of the slickest transfer reveals ever, was dropped after midnight in Manchester.

Unfortunately things didn’t quite pan out for Pogba. Despite some flashes of his brilliance that would help drive France the World Cup glory in 2018, the midfielder failed to win over many of his doubters. His six-year stint, which was regularly disrupted by injury, ended in subdued fashion with a(nother) return to Juve in July 2022.

Luis Suárez (Liverpool to Barcelona)

What do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates?

— John W. Henry (@John_W_Henry) July 24, 2013

By the summer of 2013, Suárez had his heart set on leaving Liverpool in order to test his undeniable talents in the Champions League, preferably with Barcelona. The waters were then muddied by Arsenal who submitted a £40,000,001 bid for Suárez in the belief that it would trigger the Uruguayan’s £40m release clause. Infamously, it didn’t.

However, Suárez threw a public tantrum over not being allowed to leave Liverpool, claiming that the club had promised he could go if they failed to secure Champions League football (they had just finished seventh in the league.)

In time-honoured tradition, Suárez’s grievances were assuaged with a massive pay increase and a vow that should he give the Reds one more good season, he’d be allowed to go wherever he wanted the following summer. Suárez duly obliged, scoring 31 goals as Liverpool stormed to a second-placed finish in 2013-14, though their title challenge slipped away right at the very end. Their main man departed for Camp Nou in a £75m deal shortly thereafter, and won the treble in his first season there.

Bale’s big move to the Bernabéu was concluded in September 2013 after negotiations dragged on for the entire summer — day after day, week after week. As has become his trademark, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy was fully prepared to play hardball over his star man, eventually driving Bale’s fee above the then-world record sum Madrid paid for Cristiano Ronaldo four years previously.

The whole move reportedly came close to collapse on several occasions as concerns over Bale’s injury issues kept resurfacing, but Levy and Madrid got it over the line in the end for a new all-time high fee of €100m — much to the blessed relief of absolutely everyone.

Cesc Fàbregas (Arsenal to Barcelona)

While rumours of Fàbregas returning to boyhood Barcelona had persisted for years, things really ramped up to near unbearable levels during the 2009-10 season. A number of Barça players had already been publicly pining for Cesc to come back to Catalonia — see Xavi’s infamous “Barça DNA” comment.

Things peaked when Carles Puyol and Pepe Reina executed an ambush by forcibly pulling a Barça shirt over the Arsenal midfielder’s shoulders during Spain‘s celebrations after winning the 2010 World Cup.

Ultimately, the lure proved irresistible and Fàbregas re-signed for Barça in August 2011 for an initial fee of €29m, thus bringing to an end one of the most overwrought and emotionally manipulative transfer sagas in living memory.

Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United to Real Madrid)

It all began on the day of the 2008 Champions League final, when several prominent Spanish newspapers ran stories that Ronaldo would be ditching United to try his hand at the Bernabéu. The bitterness between United and Real rumbled on for months as the Spanish press continued to stoke the flames over a supposed “gentleman’s agreement” that had been struck in private between all involved parties.

As you might imagine, this angered United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who made the immortal barb that he “wouldn’t sell them [Real] a virus,” let alone his best player. Fergie also asserted that signing for “that mob” would be “the worst possible thing” for Ronaldo’s career.

Alas, Fergie’s caustic words of caution went unheeded, and the Portugal international finally signed for Los Blancos in a world-record €94m transfer in June 2009. In hindsight, it worked out pretty well for Ronaldo, who left 11 years later having won four Champions Leagues and become the club’s all-time top goal scorer.

Wesley Sneijder (Real Madrid/Inter Milan/Galatasaray to Manchester United)

There was a time not so long ago when Sniejder was perennially on the verge of joining United. It has become the archetypal non-transfer. The Netherlands international almost single-handedly fuelled the football rumour mill for many a transfer window as he was reported to be on the brink of moving to Old Trafford every six months throughout the peak years of his career.

In fairness, there was a point when there may have been initial contact with United’s representatives over a potential switch, but nothing tangible ever came of it. However, that didn’t stop the rumour-mongers consistently touting Sneijder with a move to the Premier League club as he helped Inter win the treble in 2010 and starred for his country at multiple tournaments between 2008 and 2014.

In the end, it became something of a running joke, but it was only when he announced his retirement in 2019 after a season at Qatari club Al Gharafa that the issue was fully put to bed.