Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Ander Herrera has revealed why he believes Kylian Mbappe turned down Real Madrid in favor of staying at the Parc des Princes. The French superstar looked set to walk away from the Parc des Princes when his contract expired this summer with Real Madrid poised to sign him. However, despite the offer from Los Blancos, Mbappe performed a late U-turn on his stance, to eventually sign an extension in Paris. Mbappe’s new deal ties him to the Ligue 1 champions until 2025 and the former AS Monaco hitman is ambitious about the next chapter in his career. Despite rejecting the current European champions, Mbappe is confident he can win the Champions League with PSG, and Herrera has backed his teammate over the decision. “At Real Madrid, he would have become one of the best players in their history, with all the security that comes with playing there”, as per an interview with Diario AS.

After losing out on Sven Botman, Milan is not keen to miss out on Renato Sanches as well, even if they’re facing tough competition from Paris Saint-Germain. The Rossoneri have been interested in signing a 24-year-old Portuguese midfielder for a while now and they’ve already agreed on personal terms, but the Botman case is a painful reminder that bigger offers from other clubs can still disrupt their plans, agreement or not. As highlighted by Calciomercato.com, there are doubts that PSG’s reported offer for Sanches has actually been formalized and submitted and Milan still seems to have a chance to pull off a transfer, although that could change should the French giants actually make a concrete move. The Rossoneri are still confident that they can sign the Portuguese midfielder without increasing their offer, meaning that they’re hoping to close things out on the basis of €18m, with the 24-year-old being given a contract worth €4m net per season.

Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez has reportedly urged Ousmane Dembele to stay at the club this summer in a last-ditch attempt to get him to sign a new deal. According to reports Xavi made a phone call to the French star, Ousmane Dembele, in an attempt to persuade the winger to sign a new contract with the Catalan club. With his contract expiring in just a matter of days, Dembele is set to leave the La Liga as a free agent, where the Frenchman was expected to leave the Catalan giants, with Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea linked with signings. However, Dembele has hinted that he would be open to staying at Camp Nou, while Xavi has previously urged the club's management to make a last-ditch effort to retain Dembele's services. According to the Mirror, Xavi recently spoke with the 25-year-old via a phone call in a last-ditch effort to keep the French international at the club. Barcelona is said to have offered Dembele a total salary of €18m, but the former Borussia Dortmund player is eyeing that figure after tax. Despite playing 21 of the 38 league games last season, Dembele led the assists rankings in La Liga, helping Barca finish second on 73 points, 13 behind champions Real Madrid, and without a trophy.

Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly prepared to leave the club and become close to moving to Chelsea during the current summer transfer activity so far period. The British newspaper, “The Athletic”, blew up a surprise, saying that there were negotiations between Chelsea and Ronaldo’s agent in order to sign the United star in the summer Mercato. The newspaper added that Chelsea owner Todd Boehly met with Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo's agent, in Portugal last week, explaining that Cristiano Ronaldo's future and the possibility of contracting him in Chelsea were discussed. The newspaper pointed out that it was unclear if Chelsea pursued the possibility of taking advantage of this opportunity, adding that Ronaldo loves Manchester United but has concerns about the club's plans in the market. Portuguese star Ronaldo wants to leave Manchester United, after one season, due to his absence from participating in the Champions League next season.

Harry Kane, the Tottenham Hotspur star, seeks to continue his impressive scoring record in the English Premier League next season 2022-2023.Harry Kane is considered the best scorer in the English Premier League among the current players in the competition, as the Tottenham star scored 183 goals during his appearance in 282 Premier League matches so far. Harry Kane is ahead of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, who scored 133 goals in 270 games, followed by Belgium's Romelu Lukaku in third place with 121 goals. Liverpool's Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Salah comes fourth in the list with 120 goals in 193 matches in the English Premier League, surpassing Senegalese Sadio Mane, who scored 111 goals before moving to Bayern Munich in the current summer Mercato.

Media reports stated that Eight medical personnel will stand trial for alleged criminal negligence in the death of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona, according to a court ruling made public Wednesday. Local media in Argentina reported that a judge approved the prosecution's request to hold a public trial for the accused, and the trial may be in late 2023 or early 2024. No date has been set for the trial of the eight over Maradona's death in 2020, which prosecutors say was due to "omissions" by his caregivers who abandoned him "to his fate" during home hospitalization. Maradona died aged 60 in 2020 while recovering from brain surgery for a blood clot, and after decades of battles with cocaine and alcohol addictions. Neurosurgeon and family doctor Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, psychologist Carlos Diaz, medical coordinator Nancy Forlini and four others including nurses were placed under investigation.

The Spanish Barcelona FC sent a great shock to the Argentine star forward Paulo Dybala amid rumors Barcelona is interested in cutting a deal to sign him during the current summer transfer period, according to press reports revealed on Thursday. The Catalan newspaper, Sport, reported that Dybala offered himself to Barcelona this summer, explaining that the Argentine star hoped that there would be options to finally play for Barcelona and achieve his dream. The newspaper added that Dybala's dream and hope to play in the Barcelona shirt was strong, but Jordi Cruyff and Xavi Hernandez rejected him because they did not see in him a solution for the future and excluded him from their target options. Argentine Paulo Dybala is expected to join Inter Milan when his contract at Juventus expires this month.

In the latest FIFA monthly world rankings released on Thursday, Brazil has been back at the top of the world rankings released by global football governing body FIFA on Thursday obtaining 1837 points. Brazil, who dethroned Belgium in the FIFA ranking in March, consolidated her position as number one in the world in June, according to the new ranking published this Thursday, while the world champion France he fell off the podium and dropped to fourth place. Argentina advanced to third ranking with 1770 points, surpassing France in fourth place with 1764 points, and England ranked fifth with 1737 points. While Spain ranked sixth with 1716 points, then Italy seventh with 1713 points, followed by the Netherlands, which got 1679 points. Portugal came in ninth place with 1678 points, followed by Denmark, which broke into the top ten with 1665 points.

France forward Christopher Nkunku signed a new two-year contract extension that will keep him at the club until the summer of 2026, according to various German reports on Thursday. Leipzig technical director Christopher Vivell described Nkunku as “one of the best players in the world” after the extension of his contract, which had two more years to go. The 24-year-old Nkunku won the German Cup with Leipzig last season and scored 20 league goals as he was named Bundesliga player of the season. He also made his debut for France in March and has played all of his country’s six games since then. Nkunku showed strength in the Bundesliga since signing from Paris Saint-Germain for €13 million in 2019 and has seen his market value rise accordingly.