In a few weeks, the Qatari owners of PSG have seen the best footballer of the 21st century leave and have also confirmed that their player with the most value and future wants to leave them. Without Leo Messi and -probably- without Kylian Mbappé, the Parisian club will lose a lot of brilliance and could be doomed to a devastating, perhaps final, crisis of the ambitious project started 12 years ago by the rich gas emirate of the Persian Gulf, more for reasons geopolitical than sports.
Everything indicates that Mbappé, 24 years old and already captain of the French team, is preparing a divorce. There are too many seasons in Paris without winning the Champions League or the Ballon d'Or, the highest goals for an athlete of his stature. In a letter that was made public on Monday night, the PSG number 7 anticipated that he does not intend to activate the contract clause that would allow him, in the summer of 2024, to extend his presence in Paris for another year.
The announcement was greeted with "deep anger" by the PSG management and those who pilot it from Doha -including the emir himself-, as revealed by L'Équipe. They see it, in effect, as an expression of ingratitude from a player who a year ago negotiated an astronomical remuneration to stay and reject a greedy offer from Real Madrid, the club that has tempted him the most since he was a child, and was about to join the meringues. Money, the proximity of the World Cup in Qatar and pressure from the President of the Republic himself, Emmanuel Macron, influenced the decision to remain in the city of the Seine.
According to the French media, PSG, as a reaction to the player's attitude, would prefer to sell him already this summer and get at least a good handful of millions of euros. If he leaves in 2024, the club will receive nothing. At the very least, the disgruntled party wants to obtain a dividend from the divorce, an injection of cash to try to rebuild a disfigured squad.
During the day of this Tuesday, the information circulated, later denied by the interested party himself, that Mbappé already wanted to sign this summer for Real Madrid. “Lies –tweeted the French crack–. But, at the same time, the bigger, the more it circulates. I have already said that I want to continue next season at PSG, where I am very happy”. The striker obviously wants to keep his form because he has to take care of his public image in France. An abrupt departure would damage it. Mbappé qualified, however, that already last year he informed PSG that he would not activate the extension in 2024, so they were warned and cannot take it so badly.
PSG, meanwhile, continues to be an incessant parade of coaches. Christophe Galtier, fired, will leave the club despite still having a year on his contract. Like his predecessors, he will continue to earn what he gets. In his case, six million euros.
