Having caught a brief glimpse of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe playing alongside one another during Sunday's 2-0 Ligue 1 victory over Reims, Paris Saint-Germain supporters were keen to see more from the duo.

When you add Brazilian superstar Neymar into that mix, the Parisian giants have a mouth-watering attack at their disposal. Few, though, expected Mbappe to still be a PSG player after the summer transfer window closed.

For months, Real Madrid have made it clear that Mbappe was their number one target in terms of recruitment. Similarly, the 22-year-old French superstar has made no secret of his desire to play at the Bernabeu.

With Mbappe having just a year left on his PSG deal - and with Los Blancos seemingly willing to dig very deep to get their man - it seemed inevitable that the 2018 World Cup winner would be playing his football in Madrid for the remainder of the season.

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The player himself remains adamant that he won't be signing a new deal in Paris, meaning that the club will lose him for nothing in less than 12 months. Surely, PSG would rather get a nine-figure transfer fee for one of their prized assets than let him walk away on a free?

However, according to a tweet from Kaveh Solhekol of Sky Sports, that is exactly what Mauricio Pochettino's side are set to do.

Declaring a deal for Mbappe between the two clubs as "completely off", Solhekol explained:

"Kylian Mbappé deal from PSG to Real Madrid is completely OFF. Real Madrid were ready to pay €220m now. PSG stalled. Now not enough time to do the deal. Madrid will sign him free next summer."

According to the report, Real were willing to come within a whisker of the €222 million world-record transfer fee that PSG paid Barcelona for Neymar back in August 2017, by offering a massive €220m for Mbappe's services.

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Despite the bid being an absolutely insane one for a player that will be able to sign without any transfer fee needing to be paid in less than 12 months, PSG appear to have dragged their heels in accepting, seemingly meaning that the deal is now dead.

An astonishing turn of events!

Saul Niguez to Chelsea? (Via The Football Terrace)