Manchester City are ready to compete for Kylian Mbappe if Paris St Germain are forced to abort their plan to sign him this summer.
With Uefa apparently ready to hit the French giants with a financial fair play (FFP) charge, there are serious doubts over whether they can afford the projected £127million initial outlay for the 19-year-old striker.
The suggestion is that PSG will have to either abandon their plan to sign on-loan Mbappe, or sell Brazil superstar Neymar this summer.
City are in the market for a top attacker, and would be more interested in Mbappe than Neymar.
The Brazilian has, interestingly, expressed a desire to work with Pep Guardiola, leading to speculation that City could make a move, given the slightest encouragement by PSG.
Real Madrid have been tracking Neymar for some time, but they would also be keenly interested in the teenage France international if he becomes available.
And that could prove to be City’s problem – they have consistently stated that, because of the constraints of FFP, they do not have the money to spend big this summer, following last summer’s world record spend.
They are expected to shell out around £130million on two players – probably Napoli midfielder Jorginho and Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez – but would bridle at the idea of going above £100million for Mbappe, the kind of fee Monaco would want.
City were convinced last summer that Madrid had won the race to sign Mbappe, until PSG stepped in with an incredible offer of paying £127million, with £31million in add-ons, at the end of a year’s loan.