The bomb fell on Monday evening on RMC Sport: if he had the opportunity, Kylian Mbappé (23) would leave Paris Saint-Germain this winter. This information was confirmed the next day by MARCA. Four months have passed since his extension and now the soap opera is relaunched again.
It seems long ago that Nasser al-Khelaïfi and Mbappé posed with the jersey of Paris Saint-Germain, with “2025” on it, in a Parc des Princes full of jubilation. All smiles, the 2018 world champion and the president of the capital club put an end to three years of rumours by announcing an unexpected extension. Everything led to believe that the Frenchman would join Real Madrid, after the latter failed to sign him a year earlier. But, in football, anything can happen, even more so when it affects the club of the City of Lights.
Four months, almost five, have passed since May 21st. And now Mbappé does not want to continue at Paris Saint-Germain. While he extended his adventure until 2024 – the agreement contains an optional year until 2025. The information was first revealed by RMC Sport on Monday night during the After Foot programme, and then confirmed on Tuesday by MARCA and other French media.
Several sources close to the player and his entourage, consulted by Flashscore News in recent weeks, confirm the trend. Feeling betrayed by the club’s management, the French striker wants to leave PSG as soon as possible. Of course, his dream destination remains unchanged, even if it seems complicated at the moment: Real Madrid.
The starting point: the week of May 16th
To understand the deterioration of relations between Mbappé and Paris Saint-Germain, we must go back to the week before the announcement of his extension. For the first time in two years – or even three – the Parisian board managed to see a door ajar on the part of the player, after they finally agreed to hear his message about sporting guarantees. But before that, the work had been started, upstream, by the French state and Emmanuel Macron.
“I had a discussion with Mbappé, simply to advise him to stay in France. When he is asked in an informal and friendly way, it is the role of a president to defend the country,” assured the president of the Republic in a long interview granted to the regional daily press last June. This information was confirmed by the French striker in an interview with the New York Times in July.
“He told me: ‘I don’t want you to leave now, you are so important for the country. Everyone will be happy if you stay, everyone loves you here and you have time before you leave. You can stay a little longer. Of course, when the President tells you that, it counts, but as I said before, it was my decision, he assured. I would never have imagined talking about my future, the future of my career with the President.”
It is in this context that Mbappé and Paris Saint-Germain sat down to negotiate. However, as said above, the club had to make a step forward regarding negotiations, because the player wanted a competitive team to be able to fight in the Champions League. Logically, the management gave in, knowing that these conditions are a must to be able to win the battle against Real Madrid.
So, Paris promised Mbappé the sports project that he wanted so much for years. He will be the cornerstone of the team, and then will be added to him important players to surround him well: Lewandowski, Škriniar, Tchouaméni, Bernardo Silva, Rashford and others. All these names are on the table. And also, two world stars can not sit on the Parisian throne, and knowing the inconsistency of Neymar, the club made a promise to the Frenchman to sell the Brazilian. Finally, Zinedine Zidane was to be the coach.
The reasons for the decline in relations
“Promises only engage those who receive them,” repeated former President of the Republic, Jacques Chirac. A quotation heavy with meaning in this case. Very quickly, Kylian Mbappé and his entourage realized that the commitments made by PSG were not kept.
The first frustrations of the player arrived in July-August, as soon as the club of the capital signed its first recruits, far from the promises made in May. “He keeps repeating that he made a mistake, he wants to leave again,” sources close to the player’s entourage assured Flashscore News at that time.
Sometimes moody, especially when things do not turn out to his advantage, Mbappé sounded the alarm publicly for the first time on August 13th, during the second week of Ligue 1 against Montpellier, with the “Penaltygate” case. Being the star of the team, he did not accept that Neymar could take the second penalty of the game. He was promised to be the centre of the project, but this proved the opposite.
Luis Campos fixed the issue with the two players in the meantime, the press relayed the information, and they moved on very quickly. But time passed and the club did not keep any of the promises made in May. Neymar remained, and even if his relationship with the Brazilian, described as a “roller coaster” by the interested party in a press conference, is improving, Mbappé is angry at the club’s management, especially Nasser al-Khelaïfi and Antero Henrique, for not having kept their commitments.
Finally, tactically, his place on the field does not suit him. This goes hand in hand with the famous promises of May. Mbappé had to be surrounded by a No.9 so that he could occupy his preferred area on the field: the left side. However, he would occupy the axis as ‘a pivot’ since no world-class strikers were recruited. This is the explanation for his media outing after the French team’s match against Austria on September 22nd, as well as his “#PivotGang” message on Instagram after PSG’s 0-0 draw against Reims on Saturday.
Mbappé wants to leave Paris Saint-Germain as soon as possible
As revealed by After Foot on RMC Sport, then confirmed by MARCA, Mbappé does indeed want, at this very moment, to leave Paris Saint-Germain as soon as possible. So if he had the opportunity, he would do so this winter, sources close to the case assured Flashscore News. He obviously wants to go to Real Madrid, but the club of the capital is not selling. While the Spanish club, not surprised by the situation, observed without giving notice to anything that came out.
In fact, Paris Saint-Germain has the upper hand on the file: Mbappé has extended until 2024 with an optional year for 2025. If the situation does not change by next summer, the question of a potential sale of the player to recover a sum a year before the end of his contract will have to come into the equation again.
The French player, for his part, must suffer the situation while he reaffirms internally that he wants to go to Real Madrid. His choice was made last May, he just has to wait until the end of his contract. A sale in winter has not been contemplated at all in the highest spheres of PSG and, from experience, it may not be either in the summer of 2023.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, knew that the relationship between the player and his club would explode sooner or later. Not surprised, the Madrid board remains attentive to the situation, without believing word for word everything that appears. In the Spanish club, they are simply careful given the events of May. And even if the Spanish press can assure on Wednesday that the name of the Frenchman is no longer on the roadmap of the management, the intentions are different.
Real Madrid as a fallback?
According to our information, Real Madrid and Florentino Pérez have kept the doors open to Mbappé under certain essential conditions. First of all, the timing. Real Madrid are far away from attempting to sign the French player next summer, when he could sign without a transfer fee during the last summer window. Moreover, it would not make sense given the non-existent relations between the two clubs.
Then, the financial aspect. The Spanish club are not able to match the current salary that the player receives at PSG, nor his conditions regarding certain clauses. Of course, the image rights will be a thorny issue, which for a while slowed down the negotiations between the Frenchman and the Spanish club last March.
Self-feeding in part of the image rights of its players, Real Madrid will never be able to offer 100% to Mbappé, or risk sinking financially. The Spaniards had made a considerable effort during the negotiations last May, offering the player the largest share and keeping a small part for themselves. But this will not happen again after the past events.
Finally, the image of the player must change. “This Mbappé is not the Mbappé I knew. The Mbappé who does not want to participate in sponsorship operations, this is not the Mbappé I want. No player is above the club. Me, I believed in Mbappé who had a dream,” Florentino Pérez confessed in El Chiringuito last June.
The president of Real Madrid, who has always maintained a very good relationship with Mbappé, expects him to change his behaviour.
“Mbappé had a dream, we tried to buy him last summer. Then we had to wait a year. He kept wanting to come and a fortnight before, in May, everything changed. Because of political pressure, on the one hand, and for economic reasons, on the other.”
Those were statements that Pérez had added during the Spanish program. Knowing how to make a difference in persuading a person, and being a major player in the case, the president of Real Madrid understood that the decision of the French player was certainly not only his own. Reason for which the doors remain open.
Nevertheless, a departure in 2023 for Spain seems impossible. The Frenchman may have to wait, because the possibility that Real come calling is unlikely. It is then that English clubs, like Liverpool, could try the move. But they must also beware of his desires. Kylian Mbappé has shown in the past that he could be too difficult an ego.
