Disappointed love or betrayal, the words change depending on the positioning. Clearly, on the Parisian management side, we alternate between these two feelings, following Kylian Mbappé’s decision to leave PSG at the end of the season to join Real Madrid, free of any contract. Free, it is the word that hurts the most to Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, a president who has trouble accepting refusals.
In any case, he had decided to believe in the promises made during the last-minute extension signed in 2022, those of a player who would not leave for free, one way or another. Either by extending and therefore causing the payment of a transfer fee, or by giving up previously negotiated bonuses. Reinstated into the Parisian group in mid-August 2023, Kylian Mbappé experienced delicate moments throughout the season. Inflicted by the Parisian management, as the media exposes Blast this Tuesday.
A leak about the player’s private life
Among other things, the capital club is said to have threatened to leak information about the French striker’s private life. “Kylian Mbappé and his entourage were allegedly subjected to a campaign of rumors relaying certain facts which could only have been known by a very small number of close friends”written like this Blast. “Yet in mid-May, the information that an article on the player’s private life was being prepared in a major Anglo-Saxon media outlet, by a recognized and respected writer, was circulating behind the scenes of the football world.”
The media thus suggests that this leak could have come from someone close to Nasser Al-Khelaifi, also close to the players since he is director of “Player and family care”. And that it was intended to put pressure on the negotiations concerning this famous compensation promised in 2022 in the event of his departure. Let us recall that Kylian Mbappé is now demanding €100 million from PSG, including unpaid salaries from May and June and several unpaid bonuses. The capital club was keen to deliver its version on the non-payment of salaries and bonuses.
“Kylian Mbappé has spent seven incredibly successful years at Paris Saint-Germain. The club has supported him like no other player in its history (and perhaps in the history of football) by investing hundreds of millions of euros. The player has committed to protecting the club for the future when he leaves, first by giving assurances that he would not leave on a ‘free transfer’ and then, if his departure ultimately was a free transfer, by committing not to leave ‘for free’ (i.e. by giving up certain financial rights), which is what some recent withholdings relate to. The player has made these commitments publicly. Now that the season is over, the details are being discussed and will be finalised shortly.” PSG therefore fully assumes its position, and this matter is clearly far from being resolved…
