Football
Jonathan Johnson, PSG correspondent 7y

Kylian Mbappe 'told me his PSG move should be made official' - Adrien Rabiot

PARIS -- Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot said on Tuesday that Kylian Mbappe has told him that his move from Monaco to the Parc des Princes will soon be made official.

Rabiot, 22, and Mbappe, 18, have linked up with the France national team at their Clairefontaine base ahead of the World Cup qualifiers against the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Speaking with Le Parisien, Rabiot admitted speaking with Mbappe about the rumours surrounding his future was one of the first things he did.

"Yes, of course," Rabiot said when asked if the pair had spoken. "He told me that his PSG move should be made official on Tuesday.

"Obviously, it is very good news for the club. Kylian is a young player, already mature, comfortable as part of a team, with huge potential and he also comes from Paris. This last factor is not a trivial matter for PSG."

Mbappe's arrival on loan until the end of the season with an option to buy for €180 million plus bonuses next summer will boost PSG coach Unai Emery's attacking options.

However, Rabiot also acknowledged that Emery will have many headaches when picking the front three in his starting XI due to having Neymar, Edinson Cavani, Angel Di Maria, Julian Draxler, Goncalo Guedes and Lucas Moura available.

"There will certainly be a bit of a traffic jam up top but that is something that concerns the coach and the club," Rabiot said. "What is certain is that we are going to have many different options with Neymar, Edinson, Kylian and the other attackers we already have.

"Neymar and Kylian, in particular, can play in three attacking roles -- left, right and even in the middle."

In Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani, PSG have potentially the most lethal attacking unit in world football at present, but Rabiot says they already had one of the best forward lines.

"This might have already been the case before Kylian's arrival," Rabiot said when asked if PSG now have the best attack in club football. "Anyway, now it is sure, PSG will boast one of the best attacks in the world.

"However, more exciting, at least for me, is how young the new recruits are. Neymar could stay at the top for another seven or eight years and Kylian over 10 or more."

Rabiot, who put PSG contract extension talks on hold this summer, said that until the recent arrivals of Neymar and Mbappe, he and teammates likes Marco Verratti and Marquinhos had been considering their futures at PSG.

"PSG really have moved to a new level, this is true," he said. "Over the past year, one cycle ended and new life had to be breathed into the project.

"Players like Marco, Marquinhos and myself, several young players, were asking ourselves questions about the club's future. We are ambitious, we want to target the Champions League, we want to reach as high as possible and do not want to miss our chance.

"Now, we have the answers to our questions and it has become very difficult to have any doubts."

Questioned further on his potential PSG contract extension, Rabiot added "it is not the time to speak about that" but emphasised the importance for PSG to "recruit a player capable of taking over from Thiago [Motta]" because of the 35-year-old being "unable to play 60 matches now and in the future."

Rabiot had previously been used to occupy Motta's deep-lying midfield role when the Italian was unavailable but it is not a role he wants to continue in.

"This is not really where I can express myself best," he said, after taking a more advanced left-sided central midfield starting role when Blaise Matuidi departed for Juventus.

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