Michael Emenalo - the director of football for the Saudi Pro League - has refused to close the door on an audacious swoop for Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe.
Middle Eastern clubs were alerted to the Frenchman's potential availability during his latest transfer saga over the summer, as he informed PSG that he had no plans to extend his deal beyond 2024.
The attacker's bombshell admission saw PSG do their utmost to force him out of the door, although the French champions' hefty asking price and Mbappe's astronomical wages meant that interest from Europe was scarce.
Instead, Al-Hilal - one of four Saudi Pro League sides backed by the Public Investment Fund alongside Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli - offered PSG a world-record €300m (£257.9m) to take Mbappe off of PSG's hands, which Les Parisiens accepted.
An influx of high-profile names had already been seduced by Saudi Pro League riches, including Mbappe's compatriots Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante, as well as players in the prime of their careers in Seko Fofana, Ruben Neves and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
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However, Mbappe turned his nose up to a switch to the Middle East, and after briefly being frozen out of the PSG first-team picture, he was eventually reinstated to Luis Enrique's squad after constructive talks with the hierarchy.
While there have been whispers of a renewal, Mbappe's contract situation remains unchanged, and he will be able to enter talks with foreign clubs when he enters the final six months of his contract next month.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Emenalo - a former Nigeria left-back - affirmed that the Saudi Pro League would welcome the potential arrival of Mbappe, but he did not disclose how far conversations went over the summer.
"It's an open conversation, but we don't know what he wants to do. Our position is very clear - any of these players know where we are," Emenalo said when asked about Mbappe's future.
"If there's any interest in being part of what we are trying to build now or for the future, you can't turn down an opportunity to see if Mbappe can join us. Kylian is someone I love as a player.
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"It's never close if it's not done... If it's not done, it's a huge chasm. I can't say how deep the conversation went, but there was an express interest that if he was ready to come, there was a club ready to make space for him."
Since being welcomed back into the first-team setup, Mbappe has continued to find the back of the net at a prolific rate, netting 18 goals and providing two assists in 20 games in all tournaments.
The 24-year-old has long been expected to swap his PSG strip for a Real Madrid jersey, but Los Blancos are now believed to have cooled their interest in bringing him to the Bernabeu given his age and an anticipated mammoth signing-on fee.
Real have not completely closed the door on a potential swoop, but they are believed to want a final answer from Mbappe by the middle of January before scoping out alternative targets.
The ex-Monaco man has scored a club-high 230 goals in 280 matches for PSG since first arriving in Paris in 2017, in addition to registering a century of assists in all competitions.
Ben Knapton
