This time it’s serious. After the words and the will displayed for several weeks not to let Kylian Mbappé leave for free at the end of his contract in a year, Paris Saint-Germain took action. The French striker is not on the list of players, published Friday evening July 21, who will participate in a summer tour of Japan from Saturday, without the capital club giving an explanation for the absence of its star.
Present at the resumption of training for the champions of France at the start of the week, Kylian Mbappé had participated, on Friday, in the first friendly match of PSG by Luis Enrique, who arrived in the offseason to replace Christophe Galtier, even scoring a goal to consolidate the victory of the Parisians against Le Havre (2-0).
But a few hours later, no Kylian Mbappé on the list of players scheduled for the trip to Asia from July 24 to August 2, where the club will notably face Cristiano Ronaldo’s Saudi club Al-Nassr. Among those retained, however, are new recruits, such as the Korean Kang-in Lee and Lucas Hernandez, little used elements (Layvin Kurzawa), or the other star striker of the Parisian team, Neymar. And another Mbappé: Ethan, his 16-year-old little brother.
“He can’t leave for free”
Even without official communication from the club on this notable absence, it is difficult not to see it as a new round in the communication war in which the two parties have been engaged for several weeks on the terms of a possible transfer. While the club wants to keep him on condition that he extends his contract or gives it up this summer, the player says he wants to stay until 2024, when his current contract ends, making PSG fear the departure of the gifted striker, bought 180 million euros in 2017, without receiving any compensation.
According to the newspaper L’Equipe, PSG suspects the captain of the France team (70 caps, 40 goals) of already having an agreement with Real Madrid to join the Spanish club freely in 2024.
“He can’t leave for free,” Parisian President Nasser Al-Khelaïfi said in an interview with several media outlets in early July, referring to the player’s “verbal agreement” that he would not leave free. Speaking of a “non-negotiable” case, Al-Khelaïfi even gave an ultimatum of “maximum two weeks” to Mbappé to make his decision: sign a new contract, or leave this summer. A date that corresponds approximately with the beginning of the internship in Japan.
With the departure of Mbappé, PSG, which already saw Argentinian Lionel Messi fly to Miami in June after two mixed years in Paris, would not only lose one of the best players in the world. The club would also give up on the 100 to 200 million euros that the transfer of the Blues striker could bring in.
Spikes and pressure blows
Top scorer in club history (212 goals in 260 matches, ahead of Edinson Cavani’s 200), Mbappé signed a new contract in May 2022, when he was already free to leave. But the increasingly lively exchanges between the two camps poisoned the last season and then the summer preparation of PSG.
For several months, the club and the number 7 have been multiplying the spades and pressure shots, Mbappé complaining in particular of his place as “pivot” at PSG, also having his entourage leak his dissatisfaction with recruitment, before denying it to journalists.
The ? new ? elimination of PSG in the knockout stages of the Champions League against Bayern Munich also displeased the 2018 world champion, who then declared: “Our maximum is that. »
In April, he got carried away on Instagram against the communication of the club, too exclusively centered on his person for his taste: “The PSG is a big family but it is especially not the Kylian Saint-Germain”, he had written.
Last June, the crisis became more serious: by mail, the player warned the club that he did not intend to activate the option for an additional year of contract, until 2025. Also by mail, the club replied to him on July 3, citing “enormous damages” if Mbappé left free in June 2024 without any compensation. PSG also highlighted the risk of “paralysis of the club” in transfer matters if the situation were to drag on over the summer.
With the non-selection of Mbappé in the group for Japan, PSG seem to want to carry out their ultimatum. And engage in a standoff that could last.
