France woke up this Sunday with a smile from ear to ear. Yesterday there were two sporting successes celebrated in style. The first was a title. Olympique de Lyon regained hegemony in Europe after beating an unrecognizable Barça in the Women’s Champions League final. Kylian Mbappé’s continuity at PSG was not a trophy, but a moral victory celebrated as such.
The French press celebrates that the French attacker has finally decided to take the check from Qatar and rule out his signing for Real Madrid at the last minute. A decision that a few days ago would have seemed unthinkable in the country’s capital and that in recent days had become a national issue.
The decision was made “in the last few hours”, according to the newspaper L’Équipe, which recalls that signing for Real Madrid had been the player’s preference for a long time. The French sports newspaper publishes a very explicit cover with the title “France 2-Spain 0”, in reference to PSG’s victory over Real Madrid with this signing and Lyon’s victory over Barcelona in the Women’s Champions League.
He explains that the negotiations between representatives of both parties lasted until Saturday afternoon, when a personal intervention by the club’s president, Nasser Al Khelaïfi, ended up unblocking the situation.
L’Équipe points out that PSG managers managed to convince their great star with two arguments; the first of which would be to fix the “dysfunctionalities” of the club. In fact, the sports director, the Brazilian Leonardo, already received the news on Saturday night that he will not continue in office. The second would be the responsibility of Mbappé, who despite his youth (23 years old) is the symbol of French football, in trying to win European titles with the team from his city and to promote the French league in the world.
For its part, Le Parisien, a newspaper with sources very close to PSG, points out that Mbappé has taken up the challenge of taking the Champions League to Paris for the first time. In addition, he adds that the player seeks to achieve individual titles with PSG, such as the Ballon d’Or. With 171 goals in all competitions, Mbappé is PSG’s highest active scorer and would like to dethrone the Uruguayan Edinson Cavani, holder of the absolute mark with 200 goals.
The French generalist newspaper also recalls the support of the fans for Mbappé despite the anger of the ultras towards the team and their elimination in the Champions League round of 16 against Real Madrid.
The newspaper Le Figaro headlines: “Mbappé, the man who has said no to Real Madrid three times”, after his rejection in 2012, 2017 and 2022, and recalls the “perfect night” lived in the Parque de los Príncipes, when at the celebration of PSG’s league title was added to the announcement of the renewal of the player, who scored a hat-trick in the last game of the season against modest Metz, to the ecstasy of the Parisian fans.
Le Monde headlines “Mbappé prolongs with PSG and rejects Real Madrid”, in what it considers “a French victory” for the club from the French capital. “Never has the extension of a fixed-term contract given so much talk or occupied so much media space in the history of French workers,” he sums up.
4
