Kylian Mbappé will change his mind. Penultimate episode of the colebrot. If nothing goes wrong, his destination will be Real Madrid. The French soccer star officially informed his club, PSG, that he will not renew his contract when it expires on June 30. This time it is no longer a rumor. Several reputable media, including Le Monde and L’Équipe, received confirmation of the news from internal sources. In a few days it will be official.
The departure of Mbappé, on the eve of the Olympic Games in Paris, is a hard blow both for PSG and for the self-esteem of France. It is not imaginable that, as happened in 2022, the President of the Republic himself, Emmanuel Macron, will once again put pressure on the striker to stay. There are no more arguments, neither sporting nor patriotic nor geopolitical. It will have been seven years at Parc dels Prínceps. It is said that Real Madrid was his dream since childhood. It is not an economic calculation. He wants to make a professional leap, a new boost in his career that he couldn’t delay any longer. Mbappé turned 25 in December. What awaits him is what the French press usually describes as “the biggest football club in the world”.
Although there may be a lack of fringes to negotiate with Florentino Pérez, the striker’s will seems very firm. According to Le Parisien, which already advanced the information on the 3rd, Mbappé specifically asked the president of PSG, Nasser al-Khelaifi, not to try a counteroffer, a kind of tender to retain him. It is not a question of ending Madrid’s patience. The message is that things are serious and the operation should not be wasted.
The timing of the announcement was not accidental. Mbappé told Al-Khelaifi on Tuesday, after training and a day before the Champions League round of 16 match against Real Sociedad. Then the coach, Luis Enrique, and the sporting director, Luis Campos, found out. The player’s spirit did not suffer on the field. Against the Basques, Mbappé fulfilled his mission and broke the deadlock in a match that appeared to be difficult. Well into the second half, he scored the first goal that restored PSG’s confidence and set them on their way to victory.
Without Mbappé, PSG will enter a new era. Everything can happen. Does it mean the beginning of the end for Qatari ownership after 13 years? In the analysis it must be taken into account that, in December, the investment fund of the United States Arctos, with many interests in the world of sports, obtained 12.5% ??of the shares of the Parisian club. He paid no less than 531 million euros for this operation. This means that PSG is worth 4.25 billion euros, an astronomical figure if you consider that Qatar disbursed 70 million in 2011. The purely financial business will have been round and the image benefits for the rich Gulf emirate as well. They missed winning a Champions League, but you can’t have everything in life. Perhaps it would be the opportunity for the exit of the Qataris.
According to Le Figaro, those in charge of Arctos would not look down on Mbappé’s departure. To them, such an insistent bet by the club on a single player, which cost around 200 million euros per year, seemed disproportionate. In fact, last summer he was on the verge of breaking up when the crack was removed and he did not participate in the Asian tour.
The new strategy would be a generational renewal with very young footballers with a great future, such as Zaïre-Emery, Barcola or Simons. In a few years, the team will have changed its DNA, after other superstars such as Neymar or Messi have left it. PSG’s challenge is to build a team without relying solely on the checkbook and abandon the culture of the nouveau riche. It remains to be seen whether the loss of Mbappé will help him for the metamorphosis. A painful transition could be inevitable.
