Arnaud Hermant, journalist for L'Équipe and author of Mbappé, le phénomène , resorts to the title of the famous song that has been heard again in France after the death of Jane Birkin: Je t'aime... moi non plus (You love... me neither). In a telephone conversation from Tokyo, where he covers PSG's Asian tour, the biographer comments that the absurd and surreal phrase is very appropriate to define the complex and contradictory relationship that the player has had with his still club.
The French fans and the world of football are perplexed by the unusual punishment inflicted on the captain of the blues, ruled out of the trip to Japan and South Korea. Convinced that the striker has a secret agreement to sign for Real Madrid in 2024, PSG wanted to pressure him to extend his contract in Paris or agree to be sold this summer. For a matter of image and pride, in addition to the financial factor, the Qatari owners of the Parisian team do not tolerate the idea of their most valuable footballer leaving the club for free.
"In this conflict, both PSG and the player must save face," Hermant estimates. The L'Équipe journalist and other analysts agree that the fight will probably end in a commitment to sell the striker, either to Real Madrid or to another club. "The situation is a bit dangerous for Mbappé, people are starting to get tired and tense with him," adds Hermant, who recalls that the player himself, when he renewed, promised that he would never leave PSG for free. In addition to the institutional trauma that his departure will entail, the biographer warns of the sporting loss that it will mean, since other incorporations do not compensate for his quality. "If he leaves, it will be the desert up front, and PSG will not win the Champions League," Hermant predicts.
The crossroads at which Kylian Mbappé finds himself is not easy. The danger of a white season – without playing – if the fight with PSG is not resolved, it would be devastating for his career. He would compromise, or make it impossible, that he could play the Eurocup and the Olympic Games in Paris with the national team. It is a nightmare scenario, for him and for the fans. There are those who believe that accepting an offer from Saudi Arabia, for just one year, would be an attractive alternative because it would keep him in shape, he would earn an astronomical sum, which would even allow him to acquire a club in the future, it would serve the geopolitical interests of Doha – now reconciled with Riyadh – and would allow him to sign in 2024 for Real Madrid or another club without a transfer fee.
Mbappé, 24, bears the pressure with apparent phlegm. He seems calm, smiles and is more solicitous than usual with those who ask him for autographs after training with his teammates who have not traveled to Asia.
The PSG player, born in Bondy –a popular suburb on the northern outskirts of Paris–, to a Cameroonian father and a mother of Algerian origin, is very intelligent. Already at school, as a child, he was considered gifted. He communicates well and speaks English and Spanish very fluently.
The family environment is essential. Although his parents are separated, his father advises him on sports, and his mother, Fayza, financially, especially contracts with sponsors. The lawyer Delphine Verheyden has a fundamental role. For years, despite the flow of money that came in, Mbappé showed a certain modesty. “We had poor man syndrome,” her mother once said. She had a hard time deciding what to invest in. Now the footballer no longer has so many qualms about being seen at parties, in a frivolous climate. He even made the mistake, recently, of writing a very political and harsh tweet when the police killed a teenager of North African origin. A few days later he posted photos having fun in Miami. A scandalous contrast.
It is also true that the footballer very soon acquired a global charisma, as a symbol of a multi-ethnic France. In October 2018, the American magazine Time dedicated the cover to him, in the editions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in an issue dedicated to "the leaders of the next generation".
"Mbappé is more than a player, his sporting destiny is a matter of State," Jean-Baptiste Guégan, an expert in the geopolitics of sport and co-author, along with Clément Pernia, of La République du foot, assures La Vanguardia. Both are writing a book to analyze precisely all the extra-sports impact of the player.
The national significance of PSG's number 7 was made clear last year when President Emmanuel Macron intervened to prevent him from leaving France. He recently said again that he preferred her to stay.
“It is important for national branding (national brand), it is the best-known French in the world, the most followed on social networks; represents the France of the 21st century”, says Guégan. The analyst admits, however, that for his sports career, "to grow", it is surely essential that he sign for another team, "but he needs to do it well". "It would be a catastrophe if he left for free, a catastrophe for France, for the league, for PSG and for himself," concludes Guégan.
