Neither with you nor without you. PSG and Mbappé are the classic couple who spend their lives breaking up and reconciling, although in their case the sentimental story, in addition to tragicomic additions and with hundreds of millions of euros at stake, also presents up to and all geopolitical connotations.
After a fight that has lasted for many weeks and has had the world of football in its heart, the Parisian club and the striker have settled their differences. Kylian Mbappé returned to training just yesterday and everything indicates that the captain of the French national team will continue at least until the end of the season. As leaked to various media outlets, the twist in the script involves new talks to extend the contract until 2025, as the Qatari owners intended, but would include a clause that would make it easier for Mbappé to leave the club in the summer of 2024 if a buyer – Real Madrid? – is willing to pay the sum that PSG demands.
The Qataris wanted to avoid whether or not the player was free next year and PSG, which paid 180 million euros to Monaco in 2017, was left without any income. It was a question of honor and image, as well as financial. It remains to be seen, however, if the supposed roadmap is fulfilled or a big fight will break out again.
“After very constructive and positive discussions between Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbappé before the PSG-Lorient game, this Saturday, August 12, the player has been reintegrated into the first team this morning,” said the club’s statement.
Hours before the news was published there were already signs that something had moved. Mbappé, who had been away from the team like a plague, not taking part in the Asian tour and having to train with the players discarded from the squad, had gone to Parc dels Prínceps to witness from the stands the match against Lorient . Then he went down to the dressing room. Mbappé had also greeted very effusively, via Twitter, the arrival of Dembélé.
The circumstances meant that Mbappé’s return was seen as an absolute emergency. The team, under the command of Luis Enrique, only managed a 0-0 draw against Lorient, ranked tenth last season. The team from the capital dominated, but lacked push in the area, just what Mbappé can contribute.
“The Parisians, harmless without Mbappé,” headlined the cover of the magazine Le Parisien. L’Équipe wrote on its front page that PSG is still “a team under construction” and needs filming.
It made no sense to prolong a situation that seemed crazy around Mbappé and that left the suffering fans of PSG perplexed, who have been dreaming in vain of winning the Champions League for years.
It cannot be ruled out that, once again, as happened last year, there have been conditions and very strong non-sporting pressures for the club and the player to put an end to the summer hiatus. In 2022, when Mbappé seemed destined to leave for Real Madrid, there was an intervention by President Emmanuel Macron himself so that he would not leave Paris. The Head of State commented recently, when asked by a person in the street, that he would continue to try to prevent the player from leaving.
The calendar has been a major factor in the unexpected turn of the latest feud between the striker and the club’s Qatari owners. Mbappé, who will turn 25 in December and is in his sporting prime, could not risk a season without playing. This would have made their participation in next summer’s Olympic Games in Paris and Euro 2024 unviable. France is risking too much of its prestige as a country. It was unimaginable that Mbappé did not participate in such large-scale meetings. The turn of the case, even if it seems disconcerting, has all the logic of realpolitik, sporting and political pragmatism.
