On the ground as at the negotiating table, Kylian Mbappé is a follower of the opposite. While, for a long time, all the specialists agreed to send him under the white tunic of Real Madrid, the tricolor international surprised his world by signing, on Saturday May 21, a new contract in favor of Paris Saint-Germain until ‘in 2025. At the center of these desires, Mbappé has often blown hot and cold. Back, in key dates, on these procrastination.
May 2019: the first explosion
Three years before receiving a new trophy for the best player of the Ligue 1 season, Kylian Mbappé drops a small bombshell during his speech at the award ceremony. No one, at this time, expects that. “This is an important moment for me. A turning point in my career, the time to have more responsibilities. Maybe at PSG, maybe elsewhere”he says at the microphone of beIN Sports.
#UNFP Trophies
Kylian Mbappé is the best hope and the best player of the season!
“Perhaps it’s time to have more responsibilities, maybe it will be at PSG, with great pleasure, or maybe somewhere else, with a new project” pic.twitter.com/C7fJiGJM9d— beIN SPORTS (@beinsports_FR) May 19, 2019
“Or elsewhere”… In two short words, the Frenchman has just opened the door to a departure from the club for which he has signed up, on August 31, 2017 and for 180 million euros, until June 30 2022. It does not take more for the Real rumor to swell already. The clubs that can align themselves financially with PSG are not numerous and, in Madrid, Zinedine Zidane has made the Frenchman one of his recruitment priorities…
November 2019: the Covid is reshuffling the cards
During the summer transfer window, Mbappé did not leave Paris. But he could do it the following summer, because Real Madrid, doubled by PSG in 2017, always makes eyes at him and sees in him his new gondola head after the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo. The Parisian management is therefore engaged in this process of negotiations with Mbappé’s closest advisers for a game of chess which promises to be very long. A totally unpredictable event nevertheless turns everything upside down a few months later: the Covid-19 pandemic will indeed bury Madrid’s ambitions. Hit by the economic crisis, the merengue club is no longer able to afford the Frenchman who has never hidden that Real has always been his favorite club. Postponed ?
August 2021: Real to relaunch, Mbappé opens the door
After two seasons where the hypothesis of a departure has somewhat dried up, the source is springing up again. Real Madrid comes out of the woods and the checkbook. After a first offer of 160 million euros, deemed “insufficient” by the Parisian leaders, the club of Florentino Perez then offers 180 million to acquire the talents of the child of Bondy. This time, Paris does not close the door and Leonardo, the sporting director, evokes for the first time the possible departure of his number 7 who had claimed, in March, more sporting guarantees to stay.
The negotiations, however, will stumble. “We cannot, the last week of the transfer window change our plans. If he wants to leave, we’re not going to hold him back, but it’s on our terms.”, warned Leonardo. The Frenchman is of a completely different opinion: “I announced it early enough for the club to be able to turn around. I wanted everyone to grow up, to go hand in hand, to make a good deal, and I respected that., he laments at the microphone of RMC. And to continue by justifying : “I asked to leave, because from the moment I did not want to extend, I wanted the club to have a transfer fee to have a quality replacement”. Pressed for time, the three parties will ultimately never find an agreement.
April 2022: Mbappé maintains the vagueness
On the evening of a great success in Ligue 1 against Lorient (5-1), the former Monegasque finally comes out of his silence. No doubt tired of the many speculations around his departure, he takes the floor to say… that his decision has not yet been made. As always, being the clever communicator that he is, KMB takes great care to spare the goat and the cabbage. But, revived by yet another question about his future, he gets annoyed. “I don’t have to answer to anyone, it’s a personal choice. If I have made my decision I come, I say it and I assume it”he says to Prime Video. “In the good and bad things I’ve been able to do, I’ve always assumed, I don’t have to hide, I didn’t kill anyone. I take my time, I want to make the best decision possible”
May 2022: hot, cold and then the conclusion
For the first time since the start of the soap opera, the capital club seems to hold the rope. In any case, this is what the daily Le Parisien asserts, which writes in its columns that “an agreement in principle” has been found between PSG and its striker.
PARISIAN INFO | Between Mbappé and PSG, it’s set to last
➡️ https://t.co/aCkFuWVKu3 pic.twitter.com/OoreRnLV5K— The Parisian | sport (@leparisiensport) May 5, 2022
Hope is reborn in the ranks of Parisian supporters who, for the most part, had resigned themselves to the idea of seeing their jewel leave to shine under the sun of Castile. But the player’s mother, Fayza Lamari, will take care of showering this enthusiasm. “There is no agreement in principle with Paris Saint-Germain (or any other club). Discussions around Kylian’s future are continuing in a climate of great serenity to allow him to make the best choice, with respect for all parties. she then wrote on Twitter.
The vagueness remains and it will not be lifted during the last UNFP Trophies ceremony, but a week later, Saturday May 21. At the Parc des Princes, a few minutes before the final meeting of the 2021/2022 season, and while the Spanish and French media had been announcing it for several hours, it was the president of PSG, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, who took the floor all smiles, alongside his star player. “I have very good news for you”he launched to the public, before announcing: “Kylian will stay until 2025”. The striker, wearing a t-shirt “Kylian is Paris” said to himself “very happy to continue the adventure”. A decision that will delight the Parisian supporters, but which already makes the people of Madrid very bitter.