Javier Tebas: “There is a 70-80% chance Mbappe will be in La Liga next season”

In an exclusive interview featured on ‘Deporte Plus+: Especial Javier Tebas’ on Monday, for Movistar Plus+, Javier Tebas, the president of LaLiga, engaged in a conversation with Juanma Castaño, addressing pressing concerns relevant to club executives and the broader landscape of Spanish football.

When asked about the likelihood of Kylian Mbappe making a move to LaLiga next season, Tebas responded with measured optimism, stating, “Convinced, convinced, no. But it is a destiny for him, for sure. Next year it will be more than 70-80%.”

Regarding the prospect of reconciliation with Florentino Pérez, Tebas expressed skepticism, likening the differences between them to a vast cultural gap. He remarked, “It is as if I said ‘hey, is there any possibility that you can give me your house? Isn’t there?’ We are on the same type of wavelength. There is an abysmal difference in how we view European football. There is no possibility of agreeing on my part, nor that of the majority of the LaLiga clubs, that the big clubs are the ones that have to determine the destiny, the future, the distribution of money of the European football industry.”

Tebas also acknowledged his own shortcomings as the head of LaLiga, particularly in not promptly recognizing issues of racism within Spanish football, such as the incidents involving Vinicius Junior last season. He admitted, “Not detecting certain problems that Spanish football had of racism was a major issue. These incidents with Vinicius and others which we were working on, but possibly we should have detected earlier. We should have implemented what we are doing this season, we should have done it before, having done that work.”