His years are his wealth – Newspaper Kommersant No. 198 (7399) dated 10/25/2022

French striker Kylian Mbappe from this season, apparently, should be considered the highest paid athlete in history. To keep him from joining Real Madrid at the end of spring, PSG’s owners appeared to have had to offer him a record-breaking €630m contract. “today’s teammate of the Frenchman Lionel Messi, the former record holder.

Details of the contract Kylian Mbappe with PSG published the publication Le Parisien. And his information, which the leadership of the Parisian club did not even try to question, was immediately published by all the leading media resources that pay great attention to sports. And there is nothing strange in this, given that we are talking about an extremely noticeable event for the industry.

Kylian Mbappe, one of the superstars of modern football who, by the age of 23, has amassed a splendid track record that includes gold in the 2018 World Cup, has been playing for PSG for five years. However, in May, immediately after the end of the previous season, a number of publications reportedthat the free-agent striker had agreed to move from giant French club, playing in a not very competitive championship and constantly misfiring on the outskirts of winning the Champions League, to Spanish giant club Real Madrid. According to experts, thanks to this decision, the young striker, who made it quite clear that he was about to say goodbye to PSG, could make another career breakthrough.

However, on the day when official confirmation of the transition was expected from Kylian Mbappe, he unexpectedly announced that he would remain in the Paris team and extended the contract with her for another three years. Various sources explaining what happened were in solidarity on the issue of what made Mbappe change his mind – the energy in negotiating with PSG president striker Nasser al-Khelaifi, and most importantly, the generosity of the club owner: he is the Qatar Sports Investment fund. Then it was believed that in order to keep the striker, he had to spend at least € 300 million.

This is a huge amount even by the standards of football, but according to the publication of Le Parisien, the scale of the generosity of the Qatari fund was significantly underestimated in the spring. In reality, the total value of Kylian Mbappe’s new contract is much higher – more than €630 million (or €282 million after taxes). Structurally, the agreement is divided into three parts.

As a salary, Mbappe will receive €72 million a year on it. Another €180 million is the so-called signing bonus: it will be transferred to the forward in three tranches. Finally, the contract provides for a bonus for loyalty to the club.

Or rather, three bonuses for each of the seasons that Mbappe will pay if he does not leave PSG – € 70 million, € 80 million and € 90 million.

Le Parisien confidently stated that Kylian Mbappe’s contract is the largest personal agreement in the history of sports. And this statement can hardly be disputed. The former record holder was considered to be another football player – the current teammate of Mbappe Lionel Messi. Seven-time Golden Ball winner passed over to PSG from his native Barcelona in 2021, having worked out a chic four-year contract with the Catalan club to the end. Edition El Mundoreferring to the copy of the contract at his disposal, estimated the total cost of the athlete at € 555 million.

The contracts of the stars of the American professional sports leagues, which once seemed to be cosmic, now pale in comparison to the contracts of two football celebrities.

In third place is American football player Patrick Mahomes from the Kansas City Chiefs with a $503 million contract, but designed for as much as ten years. Compared to the Mbappe treaty, it looks almost like an economical option.

At the same time, one cannot but admit that, having abandoned new career challenges for the sake of money, Kylian Mbappe has not lost motivation. At least that’s what the statistics say. In 11 matches of the French championship, he scored ten goals, and in four games of the Champions League – four.

Alexey Dospekhov