More than five years after a brutal break with PSG, Adrien Rabiot has just had justice recognized the wrong he considers to have suffered. In an unprecedented decision for a player of this level, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered the capital's club to pay 1.3 million euros to its former midfielder. A legal camouflet for Paris, and a symbolic victory for those who have long been considered a child of the club.
The content of this revenge is as clear as it is scathing. The Rabiot contract, long presented as a simple sports fund, has been reclassified as a permanent contract. Result: the club is ordered to pay him compensation for paid vacation, notice, and abuse. Justice recognized that PSG had acted arbitrarily by dismissing it from the field for seven months, in the midst of the 2018-2019 season, for having refused to extend. Far from the media fiction of a capricious player, this decision poses a fundamental principle: a professional footballer remains an employee with rights.
Rabiot has forgotten nothing. And above all, he did not drop anything
This judgment could make case law and weaken the logic of the CDD in professional sport, despite a law of 2015 supposed to supervise the specificity of sports contracts. Because this law was not yet applied to extensions prior to 2015, like that of Rabiot. In the background, a burning question: can a player be dismissed for extra-sporting reasons? Justice has just responded in the negative, inflicting a serious warning to clubs adept at retaliatory methods.
Today at OM, Rabiot has won much more than a million euros: he has regained his dignity and his status. At 30, he waited, fought, and convinced. His lonely fight becomes a collective cause. And for PSG, this revenge sounds like a lesson: even in football business, the right can still whistle the end of impunity.
