A lot of noise…for not much? In the new episode of the summer saga, Le Parisien tells us this Thursday that Kylian Mbappé explained to Nasser Al-Khelaïfi that he has no intention of being transferred this summer. Some sources refer to a larger meeting in which Luis Campos and Luis Enrique would have participated. According to our information, it was indeed a head to head between the crack of Bondy and the Qatari president. A quick interview in the sense that “NAK” spent most of its time on the Arctos Sports Partners file, this American investment fund which should enter the capital of the club as revealed by the newspaper L’Équipe.
Still, according to LP, Mbappé has therefore reaffirmed his desire to stay in Paris this season, Al-Khelaïfi reaffirming to him that he will not play if he does not extend. Remember that the former Monegasque has only one year left on his contract. As things stand, he could leave Paris-SG libre in 2024, which is his plan according to the French champions, convinced that he has an agreement with Real Madrid to this effect. Except that none of this is new. This has been the position displayed by both sides for weeks now. “PSG is my only option at the moment,” said Mbappé at a press conference, he who has always said he wants to stay. “And I will be very happy about that,” he added. This small meeting and its disclosure in the media only serve to increase the pressure as the French championship resumes this weekend and there are only three weeks left before the transfer market closes. Always more tension. And blur.
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Le Parisien also reveals some behind-the-scenes information about the extension signed by Mbappé last year, when he was coming to the end of his previous contract. Which Mbappé had paraded with a flocked jersey “2025” in the middle of the lawn of the Parc des Princes before the last match of the 2021-22 season, when it was only a two-year contract with an option that he alone could exercise for the 2024-25 financial year. A priori, the captain of the Blues was not in favor of this misleading communication.
He wanted to appear with a “2024” jersey more in line with reality, he who quickly told the club – from 2022 – that he would not renew beyond 2024 since he felt betrayed after broken promises in terms of recruitment that summer (Bernardo Silva, Robert Lewandowski). Our colleagues, however, slip an important element: “Qatar feels cheated although it has obtained what it had sought: that Mbappé competes in the World Cup in Doha as a PSG player. The shareholder had made this principle an absolute priority. A point which is not surprising and which helps to understand the failures and the sometimes astonishing, even lunar strategy of recent years…
The Ile-de-France daily also suggests that Mbappé’s promises never to leave PSG without transfer compensation only concerned “his first contract, the one signed in 2017”, not the new one. The Paris-SG, however, puts forward this promise not kept for many weeks. The club also believes that leaving the 24-year-old world champion without compensation would be absolutely devastating for its finances and respect for financial fair play. “According to our information, no budget exercise has yet taken into account a market sale of Mbappé so far, neither for 2023, nor for 2024, nor the following seasons”, slips LP.
One thing hasn’t changed: Kylian Mbappé only needs to sign an extension until 2025 with the assurance of leaving in 2024 as part of a transfer to be reinstated in Luis Enrique’s squad. He said no to that too. Release clauses are illegal in France, as Le Parisien reminds? “It’s not a buyout clause, it’s a different clause that would commit the club to selling the player, it’s 100% legal,” assures us a connoisseur of the file.
The continuation in the next episode… Meanwhile, Luis Enrique is preparing, as he can, the reception of Lorient on Saturday (9 p.m.), during the first day of the French championship. All while the future of Neymar and Marco Verratti is just as uncertain. They have been informed that the club no longer rely on them in recent days, as reported by RMC. Ditto for Hugo Ekitike, Renato Sanches and Juan Bernat. Ousmane Dembélé, he will very quickly swell the Parisian ranks: he passed his medical examination this Thursday as reported by various sources. It’s not over in the direction of arrivals, with Randal Kolo Muani (Frankfurt), Bradley Barcola (Lyon) or even Elye Wahi (Montpellier) who are among the tracks mentioned in the gazettes. Young, hard-working and collective players, the typical profile sought by a PSG which is looking for a facelift to make people forget the failures of past years and turn the page.