Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal has admitted he thought Kylian Mbappe would be moving to the Santiago Bernabeu this summer.
Mbappe, a long-term target for Madrid, entered the final year of his contract this summer and was left out of Paris Saint-Germain's pre-season squad after declining to trigger the extension in his existing deal, with PSG putting him up for sale as a result.
After a summer of uncertainty, Mbappe was later reintegrated into the PSG squad, although he has not signed a new contract and 90min understands he currently has no plans to do so.
To Carvajal, it felt like the stars were aligning for Mbappe to make his long-awaited switch to the Bernabeu.
"I thought Mbappe was coming to Real Madrid," he told Relevo. "We were asking the French players: 'Hey, does this guy tell you anything?'.
"There were all kinds of opinions [among the squad] in the pre-season after-dinners: 'Well, I think he’s coming, well, I don’t think so'."
The right-back added: "I thought he was coming. At the moment he did not travel to the Japan tour. At the moment when he was out of the tour, we felt his signing was close. Then it seems that everything twisted a little and he did not come."
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Carvajal is not the only Madrid star to discuss Mbappe during the international break, with fellow Frenchman Aurelien Tchouameni also flirting with the transfer rumours.
"Of course, it was a possibility," the midfielder told a press conference earlier this week. "Lots of things can happen in football. All the teams in the world want him.
"He’s at PSG today, we’re not going to talk about it more than that. So good luck to him for the season, and we are very happy with what we have today."
Mbappe was owed a loyalty bonus of €80m (£68.7m) if he remained with PSG beyond this summer but, given the circumstances, he has agreed not to collect that sum despite it being written into his contract.
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This article was originally published on 90min as Real Madrid star admits he expected Kylian Mbappe signing this summer.