Who Is To Blame For the Kylian Mbappé and Paris Saint-Germain Divorce?
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Who Is To Blame For the Kylian Mbappé and Paris Saint-Germain Divorce?
Kylian Mbappé may never play another match for PSG.
Well, how about my prediction of Kylian Mbappé leading Paris Saint-Germain this season in scoring? In reality, the 24-year-old superstar may never play another match for his hometown club.
On Friday evening, PSG announced its squad for the preseason tour in Japan, and surprisingly, Mbappé was left off. Then came the tweet from transfer guru Fabrizio Romano:
We’ve known things between Mbappé, and PSG were contentious, with both sides digging their heels in. For Mbappé, he declined to opt into the third year of his current contract and wants to collect what’s owed to him from PSG and leave next summer on a free transfer to Real Madrid. Obviously, PSG would rather that not happen, as losing a player of Mbappé’s quality and value for nothing would have serious financial repercussions.
Where did things go wrong?
You have to go back to the summer/early fall of 2021. The season was about to begin, and everyone knew Mbappé had one year left on his contract. It was essentially the same situation we have now. There were reports that Real Madrid submitted multiple bids of up to €200 million for Mbappé, which PSG declined.
In an interview with RMC Sport [via The Guardian], Mbappé confirmed that he asked to leave the club in July 2021.
“I asked to leave, because from the moment I did not want to extend, I wanted the club to have a transfer fee to find a quality replacement,” Mbappé told the French outlet.
He also disputed reports that he had turned down several contract offers from PSG.
“People have said that I refused six or seven offers of extension, that I do not want to talk to Leonardo, this is absolutely not true,” Mbappé said. “Personally, I did not appreciate the fact that they said I came the last week of August. I said at the end of July that I wanted to go.”
The contract
During the second half of the 2021-22 season, all signs pointed to Mbappé leaving at the end of the season on a free transfer to Real Madrid. But then miraculously, Mbappé turned course in May of 2022 and signed a new two-year deal with PSG with a player option for a third year.
The contract is reportedly worth a staggering €630 million. That’s spread out over the duration of the contract and includes €6 million in wages per month, a €180 million sign-on bonus, and a loyalty bonus of €70 million after the first year, and €80 million after year two. By remaining at PSG through the end of July, Mbappé will receive €40 million.
So, you can say there were 630 million reasons why Mbappé signed that new contract with PSG. Not to mention PSG was willing to allow the Frenchman to retain the majority of his image rights, and there was political influence as well.
The letter
Less than two months after signing that contract, Mbappé reportedly informed PSG that he wouldn’t be opting into the third year of the contract. This is after he said, “I am convinced that here I can continue to grow at a club that provides everything necessary to perform at the highest level. I am also delighted to continue to play in France, the country where I was born, where I have grown up, and where I have made my name.”
Mbappé couldn’t have been that convinced by the PSG project if he was already thinking about leaving before the ink was dry.
This letter notifying PSG of his decision was then leaked to the media in June of 2023, and that’s when things started to heat up.
Who is to blame?
Mbappé has always said he’s happy to stay at PSG this final season, but after sending that letter, the club can’t sit on its hands and let him leave without a transfer fee, even if that’s what Mbappé wants. Unfortunately, the reigning French champions don’t have a lot of options available to them at this point.
Reportedly, PSG believes Mbappé already either has a handshake deal with Real Madrid or an actual deal in place to sign with them next summer for free. We won’t get into the legalities of that, but technically, a player in the last year of his contract can only negotiate with another club during the January transfer window. For that reason, PSG feels betrayed, and I can’t say I blame them.
The only thing you can accuse PSG of is paying Mbappé too much money and essentially giving him everything he wanted. Sure, they didn’t always get the manager right, and some of the transfer signings didn’t work out, but it’s not an exact science, either. And if Mbappé truly knew what was best for the club and which players to sign, he probably should have taken some of that responsibility that he was crying out for and said something.
For me, I place the majority of the blame on Mbappé. If his dream was to always play for Real Madrid, he should have stuck to that and never waivered. He should have communicated that stronger during the summer of 2021. Sure, PSG would have tried to negotiate and convince him to stay, but if Mbappé was unwavering and communicated clearly his desire to leave, I think PSG would have worked out a deal with Real Madrid then.
Instead, Mbappé has sent a lot of mixed messages. First, he said he wanted to leave PSG, then he signed a new contract and said he was excited about staying, then two months later, he’d already thinking about leaving and going on to his next adventure. We know this now, but this was clearly a money decision for Mbappé. He never believed in the PSG project after signing that new contract.
Mbappé knows the damage he will cause PSG if he leaves for free. As I pointed out earlier, he said in 2021 that he wanted to get the club a transfer fee so they could find a quality replacement. What made him turn on PSG and want to inflict as much pain as possible?
What next?
The transfer rumor mill is heating up with potential destinations for Mbappé. Chelsea FC, Arsenal, Real Madrid, and even Al-Hilal of the Saudi Pro League are reportedly interested in the France international’s services.
The Al-Hilal connection is interesting because they seem perfectly fine with paying PSG a substantial transfer fee for only one season, and then Mbappé can leave for Real Madrid on a free transfer. It’s a league that has his idol, Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as several other top players like Karim Benzema, Roberto Firmino, Seko Fofana, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, N’Golo Kante, and more.
Personally, I think a move to the Premier League would be ideal because it would put Mbappé in the same league as his rival, Erling Haaland, at Manchester City (who I should add, has reached the same level as Mbappé without pissing off any of the clubs he was at previously). Chelsea could probably pull off the transfer financially, but they can’t offer Champions League football next season. Arsenal would be a great fit with their history of talented French footballers, but I can’t see them splashing more than €100 million on a player right now. Manchester United makes a lot of sense as well and would put Mbappé in the same city as Haaland, but there haven’t been many reports that the Red Devils are even interested at the moment.
It seems like Real Madrid is the only realistic destination; the only question is will Mbappé agree to a transfer now, or wait a season and get his coveted free transfer? Well, that depends on what PSG is prepared to do.
According to reports, PSG is willing to bench Mbappé for the season. Right now, while his teammates are en route to Japan, Mbappé is training with other players who are not considered to be part of the PSG project moving forward (Abdou Diallo, Julian Draxler, Georginio Wijnaldum, Leandro Paredes, and others. Ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris and UEFA Euro 2024, can Mbappé really afford to spend a season training with Colin Dagba and crew?
If PSG stays true to their word and follows through with their threat to bench him, I could see Mbappé asking Real Madrid to make an offer to bring him to the club now. Maybe it’s a loan with an obligation to buy or an outright transfer, I don’t know, but I see the Mbappé saga finally coming to an end this summer.