French President Emmanuel Macron Urging Kylian Mbappe to Stay With PSG, Spanish Media Reports

For months, Kylian Mbappe is said to be mulling a move to Real Madrid, with the Spanish club's president Florentino Perez keen to have another top-flight name at the Santiago Bernabeu. Although nothing has been finalised, France is pulling out all the stops as it tries to woo him into remaining at Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).

French President Emmanuel Macron is making efforts to persuade World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe to stay at the Parc des Princes, according to Spanish daily El Mundo which reported that the charismatic leader recently made a personal call to the PSG forward.

The publication revealed that Macron is not the only heavyweight politician who has got involved in the prodigious footballer's transfer saga, and that former president Nicolas Sarkozy has also made an attempt to convince Mbappe to remain with the Parisians.

PSG's Qatari owners, Qatar Sports Investments, are hugely influential in France and realise that Mbappe's departure from the Ligue 1 club could deal a major blow to their public image ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

This is why, the newspaper alleges, the country's political elite have felt compelled to make their interventions as they don't want to jeopardise their relations with the Gulf nation, whose sovereign wealth fund holds a significant stake in Qatar Sports Investments.

Mbappe's contract with PSG expires at the end of this campaign and he could move to a different club on a free transfer.

But manager Mauricio Pochettino and PSG's board is doing all that they can to keep their star player from leaving the club as they have offered to make him the highest-paid footballer in the world, ahead of seven-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi.

The French outfit is reportedly willing to fork out as much as $1.4 million a week in wages for him.

At present Mbappe's PSG teammate Messi is the highest earner on Earth with a weekly pay packet of $1.3 million.