Marco Verratti says everyone at Paris Saint-Germain wants Kylian Mbappe to stay at the club
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Published 18/05/2022 at 20:14 GMT
Rumours persist about Kylian Mbappe's summer transfer to Real Madrid following a season-long saga, but Paris Saint-Germain teammate Marco Verratti says everyone at the club wants the 23-year-old to stay in the French capital. Verratti said he knows PSG will become the best club in the world, but said that their loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League represented "three steps back".
'Soon,soon...' - Mbappe to announce his decision on his future
Marco Verratti says no one at Paris Saint-Germain wants Kylian Mbappe to leave the club.
Mbappe has been consistently linked with a summer transfer to Real Madrid in recent days - and indeed during most of this season - and reports suggest the deal is close.
But Verratti - though he says he has not spoken to Mbappe on the topic - is holding out hope that the 23-year-old forward will remain in the French capital, with PSG's Qatari hierarchy reportedly doing their best to keep their man.
Talking to Le Parisien, Italy's Verratti said: "We all want him [Mbappe] to stay here. But when I talk to him it's more to laugh. In football, when we have something in mind, when a decision is close, we don't talk much about it.
"It's his decision, and I'm waiting for it.
"When I'm relaxing and I see notifications saying that Kylian is in Madrid, it gives me a stomach ache, although later I say to myself 'Don't worry, he was there on holiday'."
Whether Mbappe stays or goes, Verratti believes PSG are on the right trajectory to winning their holy grail - the Champions League. But painful knockout exits have been a constant theme in recent years and this season was no different with the , resulting in apathy and anger from fans at subsequent matches.
Verratti said: "I know that PSG will become the best club in the world. It just takes time. At the beginning of this year we had a good run, we had more fun, and then Madrid happened, as if we had taken three steps back.
"The fans have the right to whistle, but not during the game. During the game we are all together.
"Sometimes it didn't seem like we were playing at home. It's hard to understand."
Of all those European setbacks, Verratti is clear that Barcelona's famous 'remontada' of 2017 - when the Blaugrana scored three times late on to win a round-of-16 tie PSG looked to have sewn up - hurt the most.
He said: "The comeback against Barcelona [was the biggest injustice]. That night, whatever happened, we would have lost the game, 3-1 or 4-1, that's for sure. But with another referee and VAR it would never have been 6-1.
"It's the biggest injustice that we have been victims of, it was hard."
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