The Mbappé equation

Madrid already has the mechanisms prepared for the Operation Mbappé. The moment of truth is near. The strategy outlined has worked. The star (22 years old) ends his contract with PSG in 2022 and has not yet renewed. That it continues like this until June is essential, although the arrival of Pochettino adds suspense to the situation; his signing is revitalizing the Parisian project. But Madrid is confident that Mbappé will keep his word and wait… In June, everything will depend on the negotiation with PSG.

All the economic variables fit Madrid. They even do so with current crisis numbers, in which revenues have fallen by 25%, in two years to the current 617 million. The club has hAcer box with multiplayer in the next summer and get between 100 and 150 million. They are Isco, Ceballos, Bale, Jovic, Marcelo or Brahim. The rest of the operation will be financed with a loan. The club's accounts continue to appear sufficiently solvent in the eyes of the banks that they continue to trust money. Proof of this is the current policy of 328 million euros that is granted for this campaign and that it would allow Madrid, in the last case, to face unforeseen payments.

In addition, the club expects that in the next season, already with an audience in the stadiums, the income will return to its normal level and that it will rise to 800 million.

The price of Mbappé is still unknown. Everything is at the expense of the negotiation with PSG, which will always face the Parisian club. Florentino Pérez has taken great care of the forms with the Qatari owners, not hesitating to get a statement denying alleged negotiations with Neymar or Mbappé himself in the past, precisely to find his best disposition when the time is right. And this one has arrived.

In the worst case scenario, it is calculated that PSG could seek a symbolic price for Mbappé that would equal, at least, the record figure of 222 million that was paid for Neymar. In the best of cases, with Mbappé being free a year later, Madrid aspires to set a price that fits the market and that this is around 150 million. In any case, it must be remembered that if 200 million were paid for Mbappé and he signed for five years, that operation would be amortized in each of the years of his contract and the white entity (in this case of 200 million and the five years ) It would only compute in its accounts 40 million of expenses in each year … An acceptable amount for the club.

Salary is not an obstacle

Another question is how to fit Mbappé's salary into the entity's salary mass. In this sense, the club has been meticulous in recent years not to come close to the limit coefficient recommended by the ECA, according to which total staff costs should not exceed 70% of ordinary income. In Madrid, this range has been maintained around 50% in the last decade. But the crisis has caused it to skyrocket to 72% (that greatly reduces the margin) this season: in 2020-21 (the current one) the total salaries paid by Madrid are 448 million (to the more than 770 employees that has) and income of 617.

With respect to the fit of Mbappé (who will collect 21 million net, the same as he charges at PSG) various scenarios are being considered. On the one hand, simply that the exits of players like Bale or Isco will create that hole for the star's salary. The Welshman charges 15 million net and Isco, seven. It is even considered that men such as Modric (nine net) or Ramos (12) do not have much left in the entity … But beyond any individual circumstance, there is a return to pre-ndemic income (which will return to approaching 800 million) from next season, and with which, therefore, the margin of the ECA coefficient will be widened. Paying Mbappé is not a problem either.

On account of the salary reduction

Finally, it is understood within Madrid that the operation of the signing of the French must be excluded from any future negotiation of a salary reduction of the staff due to the economic effects derived from the pandemic. Not in vain, they reason, that operation for the signing of Mbappé will be triggered already next season, in which it is expected that the public can finally return to the stadiums and income stabilizes. Furthermore, Madrid's strategy to be able to compete with state clubs and entities in the hands of American or Chinese capital is precisely the hiring of that franchise player. Mbappé, with whom Madrid will once again make a qualitative leap on the international scene as it happened with Madrid Galactico.