In the end, just like a title race or World Cup final, it was a saga that ran right to the end. After courting astronomical offers from his current club, Paris Saint-Germain, and LaLiga giants Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappe made his choice to stay in the French capital and now has the chance to not only build his own legacy, but build the project around him.

How did he get here? What was the critical moment in negotiations? And what's next for both teams?

Mbappe gets the keys to PSG

After months of talks, negotiations, mind-changing moments, twists, meetings, huge bids, uncertainties and doubts, Mbappe waited until the end of it all and made his decision himself. On his own.

He listened to the opinions of his mum, Fayza, and his dad, Wilfried; he consulted with his lawyer, Delphine Verheyden, and even took phone calls from Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who asked him to stay in Paris. He received messages from some of the most powerful men in France, all of them saying the same thing.

In the final days leading up to his choice, his mum travelled to Qatar to meet with PSG's hierarchy, while Mbappe spent a day in Madrid. The forward told both clubs back in February that he would do it his way in terms of deadlines, timings and ways of deciding. Last week, both clubs' final offers were on the table, and he was happy with both of them, but neither club knew what the outcome would be.

Real Madrid have tried to sign the France star since he was 11, making recruitment pushes several times (in 2011, 2016, 2017, 2021, and again this summer) over the past 12 years. In the end, the French club needed him to stay. PSG's Doha-based ownership couldn't bear the thought of not having the biggest star playing for them while Qatar hosted the World Cup this summer. And while both clubs believed at some point that he would join the other side, he eventually decided to remain in Paris. It was not an easy call, but he felt it was the right one for him.

So how will the deal work? At 23, he is now the highest-paid player in the world. He received a three-year contract, a salary of €57 million net per season, various bonuses potentially worth €300 million over the three years of the deal, sources told ESPN FC. But the most important thing is not even financial.

PSG have given him the "keys" to the club. He will have — and already has had — his say on the choice of manager, of sporting director and probably players on the squad, too. Mbappe wanted to be the face, the head and the heart of the PSG project, and they've cleared a path so he can be just that.