Florentino and Al-Khelaïfi face each other again

The meal between the directives of PSG and Real Madrid on the occasion of the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 finally took place this Tuesday at the PavYllon restaurant, at the beginning of the Champs-Elysées, next to the Jardin des Tuileries. It was the reunion Florentino Pérez, white president, with Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, top manager of PSG. The meeting was originally going to be a dinner on Monday night at the Guyana Savoy restaurant, named the best restaurant in the world in 2020, but PSG preferred to change the time and place without giving Real Madrid any reason. The new location, in any case, is luxurious: the tasting menu costs 248 euros.

The arrival of the managers, yes, had suspense. The first to arrive was Leonardo, at 12:45 pm; then it was Al-Khelaïfi’s turn, at 12:58 p.m.and then most of the Madrid directors appeared, led by José Ángel Sánchez, general director of the club, and Emilio Butragueño, director of Institutional Relations. The last to appear was Florentino Pérez, the white president, who was delayed until 1:25 p.m.. The delay was apparently partly scheduled and was increased by traffic.

The meeting was loaded with tension due to the events of last summerin which Real Madrid tried to sign Mbappé, when he only had one year left on his contractcoming to offer 160 million euros at the beginning and up to 200 when there were a few hours left for the market to close. PSG was intransigent and refused to transfer the French footballerwho will go free on June 30, unless he surprisingly decides to renew his contract, which has not happened so far.

After the events of last summer, PSG began a series of attacks on Real Madrid, especially through the mouth of Leonardohis sports director accusing Madrid of contacting the player when he had no right to do so. In Madrid it was preferred not to respond to those attacks and in the meeting in Paris this Tuesday the position remains the same: sew up the wounds that the entire Mbappé situation may have left, well Real Madrid’s intention is to move forward with the European Super League in the not too distant future and they know that, for this, they need PSG.