Monaco ace Mbappe hints at PSG preference over Manchester City

Monaco starlet Kylian Mbappe has hinted that he would rather sign for Paris Saint-Germain than Manchester City. 

The 18-year-old has enjoyed an explosive breakthrough campaign with Leonardo Jardim’s side this season, with only Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud and club-mates Radamel Falcao and Gabriel Boschilia boasting a better goals and assists to minutes ratio than the attacker.

Mbappe became the youngest scorer in Ligue 1 history last season and caught the eye of City, who reportedly made a €40 million approach for him in the summer. He has no plans, though, of departing the Stade Louis II side yet, however.

"Even if things can happen quickly in football, I’m very attached to Monaco,” he told Le Parisien. “It’s the club I’ve grown up at and has given me the chance to play professionally. I hope to pay back the club’s confidence, to be decisive and to win titles.”

In a further blow to City’s hopes of snaring the young Frenchman, he has revealed his desire to play for PSG in the future.

"What player doesn’t dream of signing for PSG?” he comments. “But today, I’m at a team that’s really going well and I have no intention of leaving Monaco to help PSG.”

Indeed, he turned down both PSG and Real Madrid previously, and has no regrets about his decision.

“PSG had contacted me but the project of Monaco suited me better,” he said. “It allowed me to progress and to give me the best conditions on a sporting, education and human level. Now the politics at PSG have changed and the young players have more chance to play at the highest level.”

Madrid, meanwhile, offered him the chance of a tour of their facilities with Zinedine Zidane when he was just 14.

"It’s a great memory! Zidane, the idol of my youth, was interested in signing me for Real, one of the world’s greatest teams. But I wasn’t ready to experience life abroad. Leaving those close to me, my country and the language barrier... adaption would have been difficult.

"In choosing Monaco, I made a good choice. My objective was always to begin my career in France and be successful.”

Meanwhile, he has batted back suggestions that he could be the next Thierry Henry, who also came through Monaco’s youth ranks and who held the title of the youngest scorer in France’s top flight before Mbappe.

"It’s very flattering to be compared to a player who has written history,” he admitted. “I have started to write my own history and I want it to remain mine and not to copy Henry."

Mbappe has three goals and six assists to his credit in 11 Ligue 1 appearances this season.