Christopher Nkunku to sign a new contract with RB Leipzig

Christopher Nkunku has quashed transfer talk after signing a new contract with RB Leipzig amid interest from Manchester United, Liverpool and PSG.

RB Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku is set to commit his future and sign a new contract to the dismay of several clubs monitoring the forward.

Leipzig-based publication Leipziger Volkszeitung, as quoted by HITC, state the new deal will include a salary increase and a €60m (£50m) release clause which will come into effect in 2023.

Nkunku was high up on several scouts’ shortlists heading into the summer window after an impressive season resulting in him being awarded Bundesliga Player of the Season.

The France international notched 20 goals and 13 assists in just 31 starts in the German top-flight in 2021/22, a significant improvement on the combined tally of 12 he recorded the previous campaign.

Adept to being deployed in a variety of positions across the forward line, Nkunku is best described as an advanced playmaker. At club-level, he starts to the left of a front three but he has been fielded on the left, right and through the centre while away with his national side.

The above exhibits the reasons why so many teams had a vested interest in his situation but also Leipzig’s desire to retain their most prized asset for as long as possible.

RB Leipzig stand firm with Christopher Nkunku

News of the contract agreement affirms Nkunku’s current employers’ unmoved stance on the matter of his future.

"“We have clearly discussed it internally: We won’t let Nkunku leave this summer, we told him and his agent,” RB Leipzig director Oliver Mintzlaff stated in May.Via: The Sun"

A target of Liverpool, Manchester United and boyhood club Paris Saint-Germain to name a few, Nkunku himself had remained coy concerning his future to this point. However, the latest announcement quashes talks of an exit, for now at least.

His new contract is in essence the club and player coming to a compromise. The release clause included is a steal for a player of the 24-year-old’s pedigree and Leipzig know that it will be triggered subject to something incomprehensible occurring.

Nkunku’s contract can be likened to that of Erling Haaland’s at Dortmund. The club get to keep the player for an extra season with the latter offered assurances that they will be allowed to leave.