Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has laughed off reports that Real Madrid are prepared to spend €1bn on Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe was one of the stars of the recently concluded World Cup, and put in a fine showing to prove that he’s one of the best in the world at the moment.
It has been reported that £552m would be spent in wages for Mbappe, with a £132m transfer fee for PSG plus add-ons and commission.
Calderon has laughed off the rumours as he claimed that no club can spend such on a player.
Reacting to the reports, Calderon told talkSPORT: “I think it’s a joke!
“Many newspapers here said in the summer that Kylian Mbappe was coming to Real Madrid, they even said when – the day, the time, the place, the people who will be with him – so you know what happens sometimes with newspapers, they have to cover a lot of pages and a lot of rumours to keep the attention of the readers.
“But I think it’s a joke to say that a club could pay €1bn for one player.
“Mainly because the player still belongs to a club and he said in the summer that he didn’t want to leave.
“So if you ask me about this rumour, I can’t believe it, really.
“Could a football club ever pay €1bn for a player? You know football, never say never… but nowadays I think that would be impossible.
“We saw PSG paying €222m for Neymar which appeared to be an incredible amount of money, and yet they did it. We’ve seen many times amounts being paid that we couldn’t believe before.
“I find that very difficult, I don’t see anyone paying that amount of money nowadays.
“You still have financial fair play, I don’t see anyone able to pay that according to their own numbers.”
Calderon added: “I would like to see Mbappe at Real Madrid.
“Nobody would say no to a player like him, how he played in Qatar, how he is able to score goals from any position.
“He reminds me a lot of Ronaldo Nazario, the Brazilian – the same strength, the same way of running, the same ability to score goals.
“It seems difficult, but I wish it will happen.”
