When Real Madrid representatives sat down to negotiate with Fayza Lamari, the mother of Kylian Mbappe and his lawyer Delphine Verheyden, they expected that there would be an increase in the demands they had agreed on last summer. But they did not expect such an ambitious approach.

“If Real Madrid were willing to pay PSG 200 million euros for Mbappe last summer, now we want those 200 million euros as there is no transfer fee,” was more or less the message.

Although at first it may have seemed like an incredible request, it soon became clear that it was a serious request and several weeks of offers and counter-offers followed.

Real Madrid finally managed to reduce the signing bonus to 130 million euros, which would be even higher ever paid for a footballer.

In terms of salary, this too was revised upwards from what was agreed last summer, when the deal was 25 million euros net per year, while there were also new negotiations on image rights, where the percentage was set above 60 percent.

It is clear that the football industry is changing, as 63 per cent of players who switched clubs in 2020 did so as free agents at the end of their contracts with their previous clubs, according to FIFA data.

Big stars like Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Lionel Messi, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Ousmane Dembele have either moved on as free agents recently, or have negotiated deals knowing about the termination of their contracts.

Since their new clubs do not have to pay a transfer fee for them, they can negotiate higher salaries, bigger signing bonuses and better commissions for their agents.

This is similar to how Haaland forced Manchester City to include a departure clause in just two seasons, thus keeping his fate in his hands, while Mbappe could receive a €130 million signing bonus from Real Madrid or a €180 million renovation bonus from PSG.