France forward Kylian Mbappe has agreed to stay at Paris St-Germain, turning down a move to Real Madrid.
He has signed a lucrative new three-year deal with the French champions.
The 2018 World Cup winner, 23, had been heavily linked with a move to Spain but has committed his future to PSG.
Spain’s La Liga reacted angrily to the news, calling the deal “scandalous” and announcing it plans to file a complaint to Uefa as well as French and EU authorities.
“This type of agreement threatens the economic sustainability of European football,” read a La Liga statement, adding that it put “hundreds of thousands of jobs and sporting integrity at risk in the medium term, not only from European competitions, but also from our domestic leagues”.
According to Spanish football expert Guillem Balague, writing last month, PSG were prepared to offer Mbappe a 150m euro signing-on fee to keep him for another two seasons.
He had agreed a financial package with Real months ago for a potential switch to Spain, but has decided not to join Carlo Ancelotti’s side.
Mbappe said he was “very happy” to stay at PSG after he and club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi announced the striker’s new deal on Parc des Princes pitch before his side played Metz in their final Ligue 1 match of the season.
“I am convinced that here I can continue to grow within a club that gives itself all the means to perform at the highest level,” Mbappe said in a club statement.
“I am also very happy to be able to continue playing in France, the country where I was born, grew up and flourished.”
He initially joined PSG on a season-long loan from Monaco in August 2017 and has helped them win four Ligue 1 titles in five seasons.
With his contract running out in June, the Qatari-owned side were desperate to keep him and were prepared to offer the player a £21m net annual salary.
Mbappe scored in each leg against Real in the Champions League last 16 this season, but it was not enough to prevent PSG from going out 3-2 on aggregate.
He finished the season as Ligue 1’s leading scorer with 28 goals and provided a further 17 assists in 35 games as PSG won the domestic title with four games to spare. – BBC.
