Find the biggest stories from across the soccer world by visiting our Top Soccer News section and subscribing to push notifications.

Kylian Mbappe has decided to join Real Madrid, sources told ESPN’s Julien Laurens.

Mbappe, whose contract with Paris Saint-Germain expires June 30, will reportedly announce next week that he intends to leave the Ligue 1 giants for the 14-time European champions this summer.

However, Sky Sports correspondent Kaveh Solhekol cautioned that Mbappe hasn’t communicated a decision either way to PSG.

PSG declined to comment when approached by The Associated Press. Madrid didn’t immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.

Laurens reports the 25-year-old already turned down PSG’s offer of a raise on top of his gargantuan €72-million gross salary. A move away would also deny Mbappe a loyalty bonus of around €100 million.

Madrid are expected to pay Mbappe nearly half of what he’s currently earning at PSG, another source told ESPN.

The Frenchman initially agreed to terms with Madrid in May 2022 but backed out when PSG offered him a lucrative two-year contract extension. That deal included a €150-million signing bonus and a rolling loyalty bonus starting at €70 million. Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, also helped persuade Mbappe to stay during a private phone call.

But reports of a fracture appeared to develop over the last two seasons. Mbappe told PSG in a letter last June he was declining a one-year player option in his contract so he could leave as a free agent in the upcoming summer transfer window.

As he’s now in the final months of his contract, Mbappe is free to negotiate without his club’s permission.

Earlier in January, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi seemed optimistic Mbappe would extend his time in Paris.

“He has the best training centre in the world, the best coach in the world (Luis Enrique),” Al-Khelaifi said. “Every year, he’s sure of playing in the Champions League, we’re in the last 16 at least, quarterfinals, even semifinals or final. We’re there with the big clubs.”

Even if Madrid’s offer is worth half of the World Cup winner’s current wages, they would likely pay him more than top earners Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham. Each of them bring in an estimated €10.5 million net annually.

Mbappe has 258 goals in 288 appearances for PSG.

Find the biggest stories from across the soccer world by visiting our Top Soccer News section and subscribing to push notifications.

Another deadline day is in the books. Below, we provide a quick-hit analysis of the biggest stories from the final day of the January transfer window.

Last-minute hijacking saves deadline day

We had to wait until the last two hours of the window to get excited about something. In a classic gazumping, Tottenham Hotspur snatched 17-year-old Swedish phenom Lucas Bergvall from under Barcelona’s noses in a last-minute deal worth €10 million, according to The Athletic’s David Ornstein. A move to Barcelona had seemed imminent – the Djurgardens player had reportedly agreed to a contract with the Blaugrana – but Tottenham swooped in at the 11th hour with a sweeter financial package and convinced his family they were right for his development. Bergvall showed maturity beyond his years in his first season in the Swedish top flight, appearing in 25 of Djurgardens’ 30 matches. He’s now expected to spend the next few months there before linking up with Spurs in the summer.

Palace the day’s big spenders

Believe it or not, the most expensive deal of the day belongs to Crystal Palace, who reportedly agreed to pay Blackburn Rovers up to £22 million for teenage midfielder Adam Wharton. In any other January, word of Wharton’s transfer would barely make a ripple. Palace are 14th in the Premier League, Wharton is 19 and unknown to even some of the keenest observers, and Blackburn are 18th in the English second tier. This being a strange month, though, Wharton goes down as one of the most expensive acquisitions in the entire window. There’s some upside here, of course. Wharton showed he could handle the gruff standards of the unforgiving Championship, starting in 22 of 26 matches. A defensive midfielder by trade, Wharton can also impose himself further up the field and offer Palace another dimension in the middle of the park.

Big opportunity for Broja

Hours into the slowest January window in recent history, we finally got some news: Fulham outfoxed Wolverhampton to sign Armando Broja on loan from Chelsea, submitting a deal sheet just in time before eventually confirming the move after the 6 p.m. ET deadline. The deal is actually interesting, even if it doesn’t sound like it. If Fulham don’t play him enough over the remainder of the season, they’ll have to pay Chelsea up to £4 million in penalties, according to The Independent’s Miguel Delaney. The West London side obviously wants to give the 22-year-old the best opportunity for minutes – particularly after two seasons of knee troubles – and with Raul Jimenez out several weeks for Fulham, Broja now has that chance. The loan deal could also elevate his value ahead of a potential summer auction. The Blues apparently value Broja at around £50 million.

Crickets …

The 2024 January transfer window was low on excitement, but why? A year after spending a record £815 million on winter transfers – and more than £275 million on deadline day alone – Premier League clubs barely broke the £100-million mark this time around. Granted, Chelsea inflated those 2023 numbers with reckless deals for Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk, Benoit Badiashile, and Noni Madueke, but, generally speaking, the appetite was there.

Everton being docked a record 10 points for breaches of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules – along with the prospect of further action against the Toffees and Nottingham Forest for more recent infractions – may have scared off the pack. Chelsea hit the tippy top of their billion-pound budget, and Manchester City limited their January business to acquiring future talent. Only 30 permanent transfers were completed in the English top flight compared to 67 last winter.

Chelsea want your money

Languishing in 10th place in the Premier League and without Champions League football on the horizon, cash-guzzling Chelsea desperately need funds to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations ahead of the 2024-25 season. But they didn’t manage to sell anyone in January. They just moved four players out on loan. Conor Gallagher was reportedly up for sale, but no one was willing to pay £50 million for him. It’s more than likely the west London side will flog Broja and Gallagher in the summer. Chelsea are raising academy graduates for financial slaughter, not because they want to but because they have to. They’ve already pawned off Lewis Hall, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Mason Mount for tens of millions of pounds in profit over the last six months, and Broja and Gallagher are simply next on the conveyor belt.

Bayern getting instant relief

Bayern closed out the window strong. Signing Sacha Boey from Galatasaray for a reported €30 million solved a crisis at the right-back position, where midfielder Konrad Laimer and left-back Raphael Guerreiro split time as square-peg-round-hole replacements for the injured Noussair Mazraoui. Further injuries to wingers Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman forced Bayern to bring in 22-year-old Granada winger Bryan Zaragoza six months ahead of his expected move to Bavaria. Bayern now have the depth they need to continue competing on all fronts. Given their sputtering form and a sustained challenge from Bundesliga title rivals Bayer Leverkusen, they needed all the help they could get.

No place like home for Hojbjerg

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s future at Tottenham Hotspur has been up in the air since Antonio Conte left the club in March 2023 – and it’ll be suspended in motion for a while longer. Hojbjerg, one of former manager Conte’s soldiers in midfield, has made just five Premier League starts under Ange Postecoglou. And while he remains on the periphery of Postecoglou’s plans, Hojbjerg remains committed to the cause. He doesn’t lack options – Juventus, Napoli, Ajax, and Lyon reportedly expressed interest in the midfielder this winter – but still feels part of something big in north London. Credit to Postecoglou for making a player with such limited minutes feel connected to the cause.

Forest keep wheeling and dealing

Nottingham Forest found a way to be busy on deadline day without taking on another mortgage. Having closed out the 2023 summer transfer window with an incredible seven signings, suddenly frugal Forest finagled loan deals for highly rated Portuguese striker Rodrigo Ribeiro and Borussia Dortmund’s Gio Reyna. Forest also flew in veteran goalkeeper Matz Sels from Strasbourg for a negligible fee and found time to sanction some departures. Orel Mangala left for Lyon in the club’s biggest transaction of the day.

Transfers you may have missed

Here are some notable deals that may have fallen off your radar.

Tommaso Baldanzi ?? Roma: This is one of the slickest moves of the window. Baldanzi arrives at Roma as Paulo Dybala’s future replacement in a budget-friendly deal reportedly worth up to €15 million. The 20-year-old showed tremendous tactical flexibility during his boyhood years at Empoli and starred for Italy at the U20 World Cup. With Dybala in and out of the lineup, Baldanzi will have a chance to stake an early claim to Daniele De Rossi’s starting XI.

Hugo Ekitike ?? Eintracht Frankfurt: Ekitike finally got his move. Paris Saint-Germain sent the 21-year-old forward to Eintracht Frankfurt on an initial loan deal with a reported €30 million option to buy. After missing out on a move to Frankfurt on the final day of the summer transfer window, Ekitike had to settle for just one appearance for PSG across all competitions. Mercifully, his purgatory has come to an end.

Orel Mangala ?? Lyon: Belgian midfielder Mangala is one of six players Lyon have signed in the January window as they attempt to dig themselves out of the relegation zone. Though he’s joined the Ligue 1 strugglers on loan, Lyon reportedly have the option of signing him permanently in a deal that could total £30 million. It was always going to take a lot of money to convince Forest to part with one of their most important players amid their own relegation dogfight. Perhaps motivated by the prospect of a points deduction, Forest did what they had to do.

Enes Unal ?? Bournemouth: Unal arrives at Bournemouth fresh off an ACL tear that forced him to miss the first half of the La Liga season at Getafe. But the 26-year-old comes with a competitive scoring record, having amassed 30 goals over the previous two domestic terms. That’s good news for Bournemouth, who’ve relied almost exclusively on Dominic Solanke to produce up front. Solanke’s goals account for 41% of the Cherries’ total Premier League output.

The one that got away

One deal looked set to be completed all day before falling apart …

Said Benrahma ?? Lyon: This seemed for quite some time like it would get over the line, with an offer worth around £15 million reportedly submitted days before the deadline. The Algerian winger, in anticipation, flew to France, and was spotted Thursday wearing the Ligue 1 club’s gear ahead of an expected official announcement. It never arrived, and Lyon were furious, accusing West Ham of negligence and a lack of respect for failing to register the deal with FIFA despite all parties agreeing to the discussed terms. This could get ugly.

Find the biggest stories from across the soccer world by visiting our Top Soccer News section and subscribing to push notifications.

Another transfer window is officially in the books. Below, theScore picks out the biggest winners and losers from a muted January signing period.

Winners: Jadon Sancho and Kalvin Phillips

Nobody needed a move more desperately than these two.

An increasingly bitter – and alarmingly public – feud with headstrong manager Erik ten Hag turned Sancho’s Manchester United spell into a nightmare. The English winger, who joined the club for €85 million, had been frozen out of the squad since August before sealing a merciful return to Borussia Dortmund on loan. The beaming smile that accompanied his official unveiling by Dortmund said it all. Sancho, for the first time in months, was happy. He was “home,” surrounded by familiar faces and people who have seen him at his very best, when he was one of the most electrifying young players in world football. He’s made an immediate impact at Dortmund, shaking off the rust after nearly four months on the shelf to instantly become a key player for Edin Terzic.

His compatriot, and fellow Euro 2024 hopeful, was in a similar boat. Phillips’ 2022 transfer to Manchester City was, in no uncertain terms, a disaster. He started just two Premier League matches in 18 months under Pep Guardiola, and new midfield arrivals made any prospect of increased playing time highly unlikely. England manager Gareth Southgate still believes in his abilities, but continuing to rot on the City bench was obviously detrimental to his hopes of playing any role at this summer’s tournament. Along came West Ham United to rescue him. David Moyes will give the 28-year-old every opportunity to play and showcase, for Southgate and any other interested parties, that he’s still capable of performing at a high level.

Loser: Jordan Henderson

Tail tucked firmly between his legs, Henderson is back in Europe.

By any possible metric, his surprising decision to sign for Al-Ettifaq in the summer backfired spectacularly. Just six months, and a measly 17 appearances, after claiming he was in the Middle East “to stay” and help the Saudi Pro League grow, he hightailed it to Ajax. His family apparently had reservations about his move to the Middle East to begin with, but he charged forward anyway, and, after being one of the sport’s most prominent supporters of the LGBTQ+ community during his time at Liverpool, he torpedoed the goodwill he had built.

And for what?

The midfielder took a significant pay cut to terminate his Al-Ettifaq contract and join the struggling Dutch giants. Because he reportedly backloaded a large amount of his salary, he didn’t even cash in like some of his peers, which always seemed to be the sole motivation in the first place.

Winners: Atletico Madrid

Half of Europe was tracking Arthur Vermeeren during the January window, with some of the continent’s top sides trying to formulate ways to sign the ascendant 18-year-old either immediately or, more likely, in the summer. In the end, Atletico Madrid beat them all to the punch, landing the prodigious midfielder for what looks like a very modest fee; Vermeeren will reportedly cost €18 million up front, with Royal Antwerp potentially collecting an additional €5 million in bonuses.

Diego Simeone has been craving a deep-lying player who can help rejuvenate his midfield, and the blossoming Belgian, already with extensive first-team experience at Antwerp despite his youth, fits that bill. Vermeeren was handed the start at the first opportunity after joining Atletico, showing that Simeone has no qualms about throwing him into the fire right away. The manager, and the club, think he’s ready right now. While other young players have faltered in the past at Atletico, their newest gem looks set to thrive.

Losers: Napoli

When navigated properly, the January transfer window can be a turning point in a club’s season. With some nimble moves, teams can either put themselves over the top and ignite a push for silverware or, if they’re struggling, get a timely boost and get back on track.

That’s precisely what Napoli needed. They didn’t get it.

The rudderless Serie A champions, 22 points off the summit this season, failed to land top target Lazar Samardzic, and a potential deal for solid defender Nehuen Perez never materialized. Cyril Ngonge is an intriguing addition up front, but their other signings all come with questions: Leander Dendoncker and Pasquale Mazzocchi, who was sent off on his debut, are little more than depth pieces that don’t move the needle; Hamed Traore still has potential, but he’s recovering from malaria and may not play much of a role at all this season. Worst of all, their best player, Victor Osimhen, appeared to confirm that he’s already planning his eventual exit. Not ideal.

Winners: Benfica

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Benfica have made a very profitable habit out of scouring the South American market for young talent, signing some of the continent’s most promising players for modest sums, and then flipping them for extravagant fees to clubs across Europe. See: Fernandez, Enzo. Sticking with a similar formula, the Portuguese outfit landed Brazilian striker Marcos Leonardo from Santos and Argentinean winger Benjamin Rollheiser from Estudiantes de La Plata in January. They paid under €30 million combined for the two; the latter arrived on an initial loan that will become permanent in the summer.

Don’t be surprised if one, or both, are on the move to one of Europe’s leading sides in the very near future. Leonardo, in particular, will be in high demand if his scoring exploits from Brazil translate to Europe, with Benfica setting his release clause at €150 million in anticipation of the phone ringing. Perhaps striker-needy Chelsea will come calling again in the summer?

The South American pipeline, in general, came to the fore in January – Paris Saint-Germain spent a combined €40 million to acquire Lucas Beraldo and Gabriel Moscardo from Sao Paulo and Corinthians, respectively – but few teams operate as skillfully as Benfica in that area.

Loser: Karim Benzema

In what’s quickly becoming a familiar refrain among players who moved to Saudi Arabia in search of bottomless riches, Benzema made his displeasure with his situation at Al-Ittihad very clear. The former Ballon d’Or winner, the Saudi Pro League’s prized summer signing, reportedly went AWOL and returned to Jeddah from the league’s midseason break 17 days late, apparently in the hopes of engineering a transfer back to Europe.

There were rumblings of interest from Lyon, his former team, and Chelsea. Neither amounted to much at all. Al-Ittihad remained adamant that the unsettled striker wouldn’t be sold, which was apparently the impetus for a tense meeting with manager Marcelo Gallardo. And, after all that, here we are. Benzema, unlike Henderson, didn’t get his move. Al-Ittihad retained their biggest star, but his mood and outlook are unlikely to change overnight, if at all. The player is unhappy, the club has a fractured relationship to try and mend, and the league, after wooing so many high-profile names just six months ago, has to try and convince onlookers that, actually, everything is fine and the project remains on course. There are no winners here.

The NFL’s rate of noncontact lower-extremity injuries was nearly the same on synthetic and natural turf in 2023, league officials told ESPN, the second time in three years those trend lines have essentially intersected.

The data, collected via a joint NFL/NFL Players Association committee, helps inform the ongoing debate over the safety of playing surfaces at the NFL’s 30 stadiums.

Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president for communications, public affairs and policy, said the similar rates point to a “need to look at all surfaces” for ways to improve. NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell last fall called on all teams to convert to grass fields after New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers tore his left Achilles tendon on MetLife Stadium’s synthetic turf. In a statement released to ESPN this week, the union said the numbers were close in 2023 only because injuries on grass fields increased.

“As we have said repeatedly,” the statement read, “injury data in a one-year time capsule does not account for what we have known since we started tracking these injuries: that a well-maintained, consistent grass surface is still simply safer for players than any synthetic field. The story of last year’s injury data is that, unfortunately, injury rates on grass have increased from last year.

“The data cannot, however, account for what players have shared with the NFL for years: that we feel much worse after playing on synthetic surfaces and overwhelmingly prefer consistent, high-quality grass fields.

“This year’s injury data also does not explain how quick they are to flip NFL stadium surfaces from bad synthetic to better grass for international soccer friendlies and tournaments.”

The NFL/NFLPA committee defines injuries that could be attributed to the playing surface as those that occur in the lower extremities, without contact from another player, and are serious enough to force missed games. They represent about one-third of all NFL injuries and about half of all lower-extremity injuries, according to Dr. Mackenzie Herzog, an epidemiologist at IQVIA and an adviser to the NFL and NFLPA.

In 2023, the incidence rate (per 100 plays) for such injuries was 0.001 higher on synthetic turf (0.043) compared with natural (0.042). That represented a total of six to eight injuries over the course of the 17-week season, Herzog said, making the rates “virtually identical.” There was a similar difference between the rates in 2021.

In 2022, the rate for synthetic turf was 0.048 and the rate for natural was 0.035.

“Sometimes the line for synthetic injuries goes up, and sometimes it goes down,” the NFL’s Miller said, “and the same for the natural turf line. We need to have a better appreciation for why that could be over time so that both lines are heading in the same direction, and both of them are going down.”

After the uproar over Rodgers’ injury, 10 other NFL players suffered Achilles tears during regular-season games. There were another 12 during preseason games and practices, and the total of 23 was in line with previous seasons. According to NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s number of Achilles injuries has been between 20 and 22 since the league moved to a 17-game regular season.

“We did not see an epidemic of Achilles injuries this year,” Sills said.

Several teams replaced a type of synthetic turf called “slit film” after the 2022 season, noting that it had produced higher injury rates than other forms of turf and grass. Two others will do so after the 2023 season, leaving Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium as the only facility without plans to replace slit-film turf before the 2024 season.

Despite the data, and as the NFLPA said in its statement, many players say they feel less sore after games on grass than they do after playing on turf. Sills and Miller said this week that the NFL/NFLPA committee has several research initiatives underway to address surface conditions, including the possibility of growing grass for indoor stadiums.

“We think that’s important work,” Sills said. “It has not been done to the level that we think would withstand the kind of forces that NFL players put on those fields right now, but that is a very active research stream as well.

In the meantime, the committee is researching the impact of establishing a consistent set of turf management and style protocols to reduce the adjustments players must make from stadium to stadium.

“We think that’s going to be an important driver in the reduction of injuries,” Sills said.

Independent of the playing surface, the NFL experienced an unquestioned decrease in serious injuries during the 2023 season, Miller said. Missed games due to all injuries were down by about 700 from 2022, largely because of a drop in lower-extremity injuries.

The NFL believes its intervention efforts — working with team medical and coaching staffs in the early weeks of spring training on ways to manage the “ramp-up” period and reduce training camp lower-extremity injuries — are paying off.

The NFL’s numbers show a 29% reduction in lower-extremity injuries during training camp and a 50% reduction in recurrence of those injuries throughout the year. Herzog said the number of regular-season games missed due to lower-extremity strains — which represent the league’s No. 1 injury burden — was down 24% from the previous two years.

“We’ve really focused on that — made it an offseason priority to talk with coaches, strength coaches, performance directors about trends and observations, particularly on how we bring players back,” Sills said. “We’ve seen the first two weeks of training camp really provide an opportunity to reduce strains.”

The NFL also said ACL injuries were down in 2023. It registered 52 ACL injuries across the preseason and regular-season games and practices, which the league said is down 24% from the average of the previous two seasons.

Meanwhile, concussion numbers were relatively stable. The NFL had 219 concussions across the preseason and regular-season games and practices, up from 213 in 2022.

The NFL did accomplish its goal of reducing concussions on kickoffs, with the number dropping from 20 in 2022 to eight in 2023, but Miller said that’s a direct result of fewer kicks being returned because of a rule change that spotted fair catches at the 25-yard line. The concussion rate on returned kickoffs, Sills said, remained the same as in previous years.

Miller said the competition committee plans to examine the kickoff again this offseason with the goal of keeping the play in the game but making it safer. He said the committee has studied the XFL rule and will continue to look for ways to alter the play to make it safer without making it go away.