Kylian Mbappe may soon part ways with the PSG club

Following Lionel Messi, PSG may soon lose another leader. Forward Kylian Mbappe, who was already trying to leave the club in 2022, has notified him that he does not intend to use the option of a contract extension with the Parisians next summer. This means that in order not to let go of the top scorer of the French championship and the World Cup in Qatar for free, PSG needs to organize the process of selling him right now. At the same time, sources have no doubt that the offer to buy Mbappe, which is estimated at at least €150 million, is already ready to be made by Real Madrid, who missed the striker a year ago.

Representatives of Kylian Mbappe circulated through the agency AFP press release on the footballer’s contract situation. It says that as early as July 15, 2022, Mbappe “verbally” notified PSG leaders that he would not use the option to extend it. The contract came into effect just before the end of the season. It contains a clause on its possible extension at the initiative of a football player, which can be activated at the end of the future season, that is, in 2024. Mbappe’s entourage reported that over the past months the player’s opinion on this matter had not changed and the player did not enter into negotiations with the club.

This statement was a reaction to the publication L’Equipe, which received at its disposal a letter from Kylian Mbappe to the management of the French club: its content was confirmed by a number of media resources. It just spoke about Mbappe’s refusal to renew the contract with PSG. In a press release from the player’s representatives, however, it is said that in the coming season he will “remain at PSG” in any case, but in reality everything seems to be much more complicated.

The current story with Kylian Mbappe, who has been playing for PSG since 2017 and at this club has become one of the brightest football superstars, looks like a natural continuation of the story from 2022, very loud.

In May last year, many leading publications confidently announced Mbappe’s transition from a Parisian team that plays in a not very competitive championship and constantly misfires on the outskirts of winning the Champions League to Real Madrid as a free agent acquired after the expiration of the contract. Moreover, for several days, none of the parties interested in the deal has ever denied the inevitability of the transition, thanks to which the young (now 24 years old) forward could, according to experts, make another career breakthrough. However, instead of going to Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappe suddenly announced about signing a new contract with PSG.

The disruption of the deal, according to various sources, was the result of the extremely energetic actions of the two presidents – club president Nasser al-Khelaifi and French President Emmanuel Macron, Mbappe’s personal fan, who persuaded him to stay at home, as well as, of course, financial incentives. It is believed that PSG, in order to keep the striker, promised him additional payments in the form of bonuses in the amount of € 150 million (this is about the same as how much it cost the Parisians to acquire Mbappe from Monaco through a complex, through the initial loan, scheme in 2017) up to €300 million with an annual salary of €100 million.

The past season hasn’t really changed the perception of the PSG/Kylian Mbappé alliance.

Personally, for the striker, he came out quite successful. Mbappé, with 29 goals, won the sniper race in the French championship for the fifth time in a row, and at the end of last year he played brilliantly at the World Cup in Qatar. He became its top scorer, scoring eight goals, including three in the final match. In it, however, the French team lost on penalties in the final to the Argentines and parted with the title won in Russia in 2018. In the voting to determine the winner of the Ballon d’Or, Mbappé finished sixth. But at the same time, PSG, having taken the French gold, again did not succeed in the Champions League, stumbling in the starting round of the play-offs at Bayern. And his game, far from always correlated with colossal investments in quality, provoked another personnel revolution. PSG is parting ways with coach Christophe Galtier, and his yet-to-be-chosen successor will definitely have to build a team without the help of Lionel Messi, who has just been its frontman. The legendary Argentine a week ago informed that he went from Europe to the USA, to the Inter Miami club.

But L’Equipe and other resources have no doubt that the words from the press release of Kylian Mbappe’s representatives do not mean that he, unlike Messi, will really spend another season at PSG. The fact is that this is contrary to the interests of the French club itself. Having kept Mbappe, he will not receive any compensation for him in a year – due to his status as a free agent. Thus, it is beneficial for PSG to initiate the process of selling him right now.

ESPN I’m sure there is already a potential buyer.

Real Madrid, which missed Kylian Mbappe in 2022, is ready to make a transfer offer that is doubly relevant today, because the leading striker of the Spanish giants, last year’s Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema has just poached Saudi Al-Ittihad. ESPN suggests that PSG value Mbappe at “at least” €150m, which roughly corresponds to the player’s Transfermarkt estimate of €180m.

Alexey Dospekhov