Arsene Wenger met with Mbappe but could not convince him to move to north London (Picture: Getty)
Arsene Wenger met with Mbappe but could not convince him to move to north London (Picture: Getty)

Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al Khelaifi has revealed that other clubs offered Kylian Mbappe more money but he managed to convince the teenager to join the PSG project.

Mbappe was one of the summer’s hottest properties, with both Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger and Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane meeting with the youngster and his entourage.

But he finally made the switch to PSG from Monaco on deadline day, though a reported £168 million transfer fee has been deferred until next year, with Mbappe initially joining on loan.

PSG beat Arsenal, Real Madrid and a host of other clubs to land Mbappe this summer (Getty)

And now Al Khelaifi has explained what convinced Mbappe to spurn the advances of some of Europe’s biggest clubs and stay in France instead.

‘It was very competitive, trust me,’ the PSG chief told The Telegraph. ‘Some other clubs offered him more than us. Every big club wanted him.

Mbappe scored on his PSG debut against Metz, with the front line looking electric (Picture: Getty)

‘But we explained to him our project and the ambition of the club and he’s French, he’s a Parisian and he had the club in his heart.

‘He wanted to stay in France and defends the French colours in the Champions League. It’s deep inside him.

Wenger had been trying to sign Mbappe for the best part of two years, but he chose PSG (Getty)

‘He wants to write history here and he has history here already – you saw the pictures of him [at his unveiling] when he was here 10 years ago? A picture does not lie. He loves the club and it’s his dream to play for Paris Saint-Germain.’

Of the deal itself, he continued: ‘We met him and the family three times over a couple of months and they didn’t talk about money, at all.

‘This is incredible. I was surprised. We talked about the project two or three times and then you think “we want to start the negotiations” and they were not concerned about that because they just wanted to talk about the vision of football, what is the future and the plan for the player.’

Last week, Wenger finally confirmed that he had tried to sign Mbappe, though admits the club had been closer to signing him the previous summer as PSG made a big play for him in the most recent transfer window.

MORE : Kylian Mbappe admits Arsenal was a ‘real option’ and reveals Chelsea was first ‘great club’ he visited

MORE : Arsene Wenger tells Kylian Mbappe he would have been a success at Arsenal or Manchester United