Paris Saint-Germain's French forward Kylian Mbappe (L) and his younger brother Paris Saint-Germain's French Midfielder Ethan Mbappe react as they take part in a training session at the new campus of French L1 Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) football club at Poissy Al Hilal are set to break the bank in order to sign French striker Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint Germain, and sports stars from other codes are clearly feeling left out. Picture: Julien de Rosa, AFP
With the news on Monday that Paris Saint Germain have given Saudi club Al Hilal permission to speak to Kylian Mbappe, other sports stars have reacted in astonishment over the amount of money being discussed to attract the French World Cup winner.
The deal is said to be worth a staggering โฌ300 million (R5.8 billion).
Australian rugby player Quade Cooper, was clearly a little jealous. The versatile backline player who has also had a stint as a boxer in the last few years, jokingly (or maybe seriously) asked if Al Hilal would not like to field a team with an oval ball.
Al-Hilal got a rugby team? ๐๐คฏ
— Quade Cooper (@QuadeCooper) July 25, 2023
Greek-Nigerian NBA basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo also wanted to get the attention of Al Hilal.
Al Hilal you can take me. I look like Kylian Mbappe 😂![CDATA[]]>😂![CDATA[]]>👀 pic.twitter.com/VH0syez3VX
— Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) July 24, 2023
Meanwhile, an NBA twitter account did the sums and totalled the salaries of 17 big name NBA players which totalled less than what Mbappe is rumoured to potentially receive.
Combined salaries of Steph Curry, KD, Jokic, LeBron, Embiid, Beal, PG, Kawhi, Giannis, Lillard, Butler, Klay, Gobert, FVV, AD, Trae, Lavine next year:
— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) July 25, 2023
$๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฎ,๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ณ,๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฐ
Al Hilal's offer to Kylian Mbappe for 1 year:
$๐ณ๐ณ๐ฒ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ pic.twitter.com/Tygeq33Sez
Still with basketball, NBA legend LeBron James said heโd also โrushโ to join a club for that kind of money.
Me headed to Saudi when they call @RichPaul4 & @mavcarter for that 1 year deal! โ๐พ๐คท๐พโโ๏ธ๐ pic.twitter.com/IX0VSMZYNb
— LeBron James (@KingJames) July 25, 2023
Incredibly, Mbappeโs salary for one year is said to be more than the career earnings of James.
Kylian Mbappรฉโs potential one year salary with Al-Hilal: $776M
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) July 24, 2023
LeBron James' all-time NBA earnings:
$531M
Football money is wild ๐ณ
(Via @fos ) pic.twitter.com/CNompMrsqO
SkySports broke down what Mbappe right down to per second.
A breakdown of the reported salary offered to Kylian Mbappe by Al Hilal ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ pic.twitter.com/BlSPCFaytm
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) July 24, 2023
With a number of big names flocking to the Saudi-funded league, most are well past their prime but this is certainly not the case with the 24-year-old Mbappe.
In fact, Cristiano Ronaldo was the first to bank the big bucks in Saudi football after signing for Al Nassr in January. Though now aged 38, the move of a name like Ronaldo gave Saudi Arabia the green light to invest even more incredible sums of money into the game.
Saudi funded sport is by no means new anymore, with the LIV Golf Series well established now, and with ties to English Premier League soccer teams like Newcastle United.