Paris Saint-Germain twice failed to lure Marcus Rashford to the Parc des Princes in the past as the forward prepares to face the Ligue 1 side with Aston Villa in the Champions League on Wednesday night. The England star has been strongly linked with the French club during his time with Manchester United but a move failed to materialise.
Rashford has since joined Aston Villa on loan from Old Trafford and has been a huge hit. The 27-year-old has three goals and four assists since linking up with Unai Emery’s men and can now look forward to a Champions League quarter-final tie.
However, Rashford could be playing for the French giants if they had got their way after being linked with the forward many times in the past.
Their interest dates back to 2022, when it emerged they were willing to hand the England international a lucrative contract worth an incredible £400,000-a-week after scoring 30 goals that season. He ended up penning a new deal with United worth £325,000-a-week.
Then in March 2024, as revealed by Mirror Football, PSG were said to be confident they could take advantage of Rashford’s uncertainty at Old Trafford after struggling in the 2023-24 season and were plotting a £75million opening bid.
Luis Enrique’s men were seeking to replace the outgoing Kylian Mbappe and needed a reliable forward who could guarantee them goals, and the man himself even endorsed a move for Rashford.
Mbappe hailed Rashford’s quality after he netted a cooly-taken against PSG for Manchester United in 2019. He also scored twice against them the following year.
“When you take a penalty in that situation, how much practice you have put on the training ground doesn’t matter,” Mbappe said after the first encounter in 2019.
“It’s about confidence,” added the Frenchman. “He’s a player who plays with so much confidence. He’s one of the most dangerous forward players in England. Paul Pogba has spoken about how special he is – and he doesn’t talk about players in such a way often.”
A move for Rashford didn’t come to fruition – primarily because United were holding out for a figure of around £100m.
PSG didn’t end up signing any forward player to replace Mbappe in the end last summer, as they stuck with Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola, Goncalo Ramos, Lee Kang-in and youngster Desire Doue.
But the club did add another dangerous forward to their squad in January after the arrival of Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia for a fee of around £70m – around the same price they were initially willing to spend on Rashford.
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