Liverpool had the player, Aston Villa had the cheque
Ibrahim Mbaye already had a five-year deal lined up at Anfield. He will not be going. According to The Athletic, PSG and Aston Villa reached a broad agreement this afternoon for the 18-year-old winger, in a deal worth an estimated 55 million euros.
The hold-up was money. Paris wanted around 70 million from the Reds. Liverpool valued the player closer to 50 and refused to go past 60. A 20-million gap, and a door left ajar for several days. Villa walked through it. The Athletic says the relationship between Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Nassef Sawiris, Villa’s owner, helped get it over the line.
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A summer of selling in Paris
The Paris club have signed five players this summer. Now they are cashing in. Bradley Barcola is set to join Liverpool in the next few hours in a deal worth an estimated 140 million euros. Mbaye’s exit stacks on top. Two sales, close to 195 million euros, and a two-time European champion who has not had to tear up the core of the squad.
For Mbaye, this was always about minutes. The Trappes-born forward, capped 15 times by Senegal at 18, is stuck behind a brutal amount of competition in the PSG attack. His future needed resolving before he played again: he missed the European Super Cup win over Aston Villa, then the Champions Trophy loss to Lens.
See you in the Champions League
The schedule has a sense of humour. Aston Villa are one of PSG’s eight league-phase opponents this season. Mbaye could face his former club months after leaving it, wearing the shirt of the side he watched from the stands during the Super Cup.
Nothing is signed. A broad agreement is still just that, and the window shuts in a few days. The clubs and the player are aligned on the main point, though.
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