Kylian Mbappé's mother and agent, Fayza Lamari, has said that she advised her son to continue at Paris Saint-Germain back in 2022, the only time she has intervened in the player's career decisions.
The France forward, who eventually joined Real Madrid as a free agent in June 2024, had come close to join the Spanish giants earlier in his career.
Mbappé was expected to join Madrid in the summer of 2022 after his contract had expired but had a late change of heart and signed a new deal with PSG until June 2024.
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"When Kylian renewed his contract with PSG [in 2022], we [his parents] were the ones who asked him to stay," Lamari told French newspaper L'Equipe. "It's the only time we [parents] intervened. There was a lot of pressure: they told you that if he left, they'd lay off employees, that there were problems with TV rights, that it's Paris, that there's the new training center, the Olympics, the World Cup ..."
Mbappé, who admitted he did not regret the decision to continue at PSG in 2022, left the French club as the all-time top scorer with 255 goals, winning six Ligue 1 titles in seven seasons.
Lamari said she did warn her son ahead of his move to Madrid in 2024 that PSG were closer to winning the Champions League, the only major honour to have eluded Mbappé in his career. Les Parisiens lifted their first Champions League title after beating Inter Milan in the final in May.
However, Lamari said her son followed his childhood dream when he joined Madrid. She said: "When I see him leave Paris, even though we warn him that PSG is closer to winning the Champions League than Real, and with his child's eyes, he answers us: 'Yeah, I know, but it doesn't matter, I'm starting from a blank slate,' that's when I find the Kylian who dreamed in his room."
A 2018 Word Cup winner, Mbappé, 26, finished as the top scorer in LaLiga with 31 goals in his debut season at Madrid.
Lamari joked her son still has room for improvement.
"On the pitch, when he plays and doesn't defend, I also recognise my son," she said. "Since the age of 4, he hasn't defended!"