(Paris) Party at Paris SG! Despite Real Madrid’s advances, Kylian Mbappé decided on Saturday to extend his adventure with the capital club which, more than ever, dreams of winning its first Champions League with the supersonic striker.
Posted at 10:21 a.m.
Updated at 12:59 p.m.
The soap opera of several months ended a few hours before the last match of the season in Ligue 1, against Metz (9 p.m.). All that remains is the signing and the official announcement, which could take place at the end of the day.
After a long negotiation, the two parties have reached an agreement in principle for a three-season contract extension, while the Frenchman’s current contract expires on June 30, AFP has learned from a source with knowledge of the file, confirming press information.
Contacted in the afternoon, PSG and the player’s entourage remained silent.
Media abstinence was only broken by Mbappé’s mother, Fayza Lamari. “When we don’t know, we are silent… never an agreement was given,” she replied to a French journalist, insinuating that the player had returned to the “word given” to Real.
According to Marca and RMC, Mbappé communicated his decision to Madrid President Florentino Pérez, once again turned down after trying to recruit him last year.
The prodigy from Bondy (23) made the choice of loyalty to a club which recruited him in 2017, when he “was still nobody”, as he declared in May 2021.
“Insult to football”
Today a candidate for the Ballon d’Or, after another exceptional season, the 2018 world champion also had to obtain the sporting guarantees he required to stay, he who claimed to be “at the center of the project”.
His decision launches a new summer of major maneuvers at PSG, which has promised to restructure to avoid reliving the embarrassing elimination from the 8are Champions League final against Real last March (0-1, 3-1).
But first, let’s celebrate! Parisian supporters are relieved to see Mbappé stay, after having long been resigned to the departure of their best player, one of the rare satisfactions of a disappointing 2021/22 season.
Madrid, too, showed many signs of optimism during the negotiations. Florentino Pérez wanted to attract this new “galactic” for his Santiago-Bernabéu stadium who sometimes called for “Mbappé” during matches.
On the Spanish side, frustration was expressed forcefully by Javier Tebas, the president of the Professional Football League, who described Saturday’s turnaround as “an insult to football” due to the French club’s losses in recent seasons.
This turnaround sounds like a great victory for the PSG staff and its owner since 2011, the Qatari fund QSI, which remains in a strong position six months before the World Cup organized in Qatar, where Mbappé and the Blues will defend their title.
It is now a little more the PSG of Mbappé, future biggest salary of the club according to the press, than that of Lionel Messi or Neymar.
In the evening, the attacker will be honored on an individual basis, if he finishes top scorer and best passer of the season in L1 – a performance that no one has achieved before him.
Farewell to Di Maria
The story would be beautiful, for PSG, if he won the C1, his obsession, with the Bondynois recruited from Monaco in 2017 (against 180 m EUR), when he was only 18 years old.
They came very close in 2020, beaten in the final by Bayern Munich (1-0), and again in 2021, where the adventure ended in the semi-finals against Manchester City (2-1, 2-0) .
On both occasions, Mbappé was not 100%. Decreased for the Lisbon final against the Germans, he still had the displeasure of arriving injured a year later.
It remains to define the contours of the workforce for next season. Some executives will pack their bags like Angel Di Maria who, after seven years which saw him become the best passer in the history of PSG, will play his last match against Metz.
The ultras of the CUP promised on Saturday to pay a “vibrant tribute” to the Argentine winger, “at the height of his talent”.
The future of coach Mauricio Pochettino, despite his current contract until 2023, seems threatened, as does that of sporting director Leonardo, according to the press. Mbappé’s decision appears as a light in the grayness.