Paris Saint-Germain will hold crisis talks with Kylian Mbappé over his future after the bombshell revelation that he wants to leave the club for free next year.
The French giants have no intention of allowing this to happen and will sell the forward, and may even take the extraordinary step of placing him on the transfer list, unless he signs a new deal.
Mbappé’s current contract has one more year to run and he has written to PSG to inform them he has no intention of taking up the option of extending it by a further 12 months.
PSG have been left reeling by the news, with the danger it will develop into an unedifying row between them and their star player, but are not ruling out the possibility of renegotiating his contract so he can stay for longer.
If Mbappé is sold this summer the most likely club to buy him remains Real Madrid although he reacted on social media to a report that he wanted to join them now by claiming it was “lies”. The 24-year-old insisted he intended to see out his contract at PSG.
PSG are adamant that will not happen having run the risk of Mbappé leaving for free last year before he eventually signed a two-year contract with an option for a further year.
All sides are now expected to take stock, with sources saying there has not even been a discussion, as yet, as to how much PSG will want for Mbappé. Reports have suggested a fee of 180 million euros – which was precisely what PSG turned down from Madrid two years ago when Mbappé was in the same contractual situation.
Given he is arguably the most valuable player in world football and given clubs have demanded high fees for players with one year left on their deals in the past then it may take a record amount for Madrid to sign Mbappé.
Sources have pointed to comments from Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez in recent days, following the announcement to sign Jude Bellingham for up to 134 million euros (£115 million), that Mbappé is still a target.
However Pérez has suggested the attacker will be signed next year, leading to suspicion that this has prompted the letter suggesting Mbappé wants to run down his current contract.
Even so, Real have to replace Karim Benzema this summer after his surprise decision not to sign a 12-month contract extension and accept a highly-lucrative offer to join Saudi Arabian club, Al-Ittihad.
It could be that Real offer cash plus the French midfielder Aurelien Tchouaméni, who PSG wanted last year, to try and secure Mbappé.
The situation has turned increasingly tense with Mbappé even releasing a statement to insist he never discussed staying at PSG beyond next season.
His claim was met by an immediate rebuttal with PSG club spokesperson saying: “It is emphatically untrue to say Mbappé’s team have not been involved in renewal discussions.”
There is an anticipation that there will be interest from Premier League clubs but sources at Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Liverpool have cooled talk of a move.
The ownership situation at Manchester United means it is more difficult to rule them out depending on who buys the club. But, again, it appears unlikely at this stage.
Mbappé issued a statement to the news agency AFP insisting the club were told “on July 15 2022” – which was just weeks after he signed a new contract – that he would not be taking up the chance of a further 12-month deal.
When the contract was signed Mbappé stood on the pitch at the Parc des Princes stadium with PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi holding a shirt with “2025” on it. However the contract was always for two years plus the option for a further year – weighted in the player’s favour.
Now Mbappé has declared he will definitely not be signing an extension under the current terms of the contract. He had to inform the club by July 31 if he was signing.
Mbappé insisted “the only aim of the letter was to confirm what had already been spoken about previously”. The statement added: “Kylian Mbappé and his entourage confirm that this matter has not been discussed since over the course of the year, except a fortnight ago to announce the sending of the letter.
“No potential contract extension has been mentioned.
“After maintaining publicly in recent weeks that he would be a PSG player next season, Kylian Mbappé has not asked to leave this summer and has just confirmed to the club that he would not be activating the extra year.”
The statement concluded by saying that the 2018 World Cup winner, and top scorer in the last tournament, “and his entourage regret that the letter was circulated in the media and that these exchanges were made public with the sole aim of damaging their image and the discussions with the club”.
It raises the question, though, of who leaked it and why as it does not appear to have been in PSG’s interests. There is even the suspicion it is a bargaining attempt from Mbappé’s camp but he is adamant the leak has not come from him.
The club is shocked that it – including sporting director Luis Campos, who has been Mbappé’s mentor from their time together at PSG – only found out his intentions through then French media although the player clearly disputes this.
PSG has also been building its team around Mbappe and not least with the decision not to renew Lionel Messi’s contract. Neymar is also effectively for sale.
Kylian Mbappe is the jewel in PSG’s crown but its FC Hollywood approach is changing
When I stood by the pitch at the Parc des Princes in May last year and watched as Kylian Mbappé was photographed alongside Paris St-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi having signed his new contract, no-one expected this summer’s potentially huge transfer saga.
It was disingenuous of PSG and Mbappé to have the two men holding a shirt with “Mbappé 2025” printed on the back given the deal he signed only guaranteed the forward would stay until 2024 with an option for another 12 months weighted in his favour.
Now even that guarantee has been shredded with Mbappé and PSG involved in an unedifying dispute as to who and how the news he is not extending his deal was leaked. PSG’s reaction is to, understandably, suggest Mbappé will be sold this summer because they cannot surely allow arguably the world’s most valuable player to leave for nothing.
Mbappé’s response? He reacted on social media to a report in Le Parisien claiming he wants to join Real Madrid now and said it was “lies” and he would be seeing out the remainder of his deal.
It means we are facing the most extraordinary of stand-offs which has left PSG in a state of shock as to what happens next. Their carefully laid plans to build their team around the 24-year-old, the local boy from Bondy, the captain of France, is left in tatters.
They even face the prospect of starting next season not just without Lionel Messi but without Mbappé and given they would happily sell Neymar, possibly the Brazilian superstar also. From having the highest-profile, big-name front three they would be without any of them.
In the end PSG were relieved to see Messi go. Their intentions to get him to stay on changed and they reasoned they were better off without him and could use the money for his high wages elsewhere. Similarly, Neymar, although the problem there is he has a contract that runs for four more years, taking him up to 35. So good luck moving him on.
But Mbappé? Mbappé was different. He was the jewel. He was the present as well as the future for a club that has come in for so much criticism over its FC Hollywood approach as it chased success with big signings.
That is also changing. There is a new strategy that began at the start of last season; a “phase two” in PSG’s development because phase one had only taken them so far and at a very high cost.
PSG have laid it out as such: they want to build a team and not a collection of individual players (an admission that they have been guilty of this in the past) although it was always viewed through the prism of Mbappé being at its vanguard.
The club cite two things: the crop of exciting young players coming through their ranks and the opening next month of their huge, impressive new 74-hectare training ground on the outskirts of Paris which costs £250 million.
They already cite attacking midfielder Warren Zaïre-Emery who last season became the youngest goalscorer in PSG’s history at 16 years and 331 days, and 17-year-old defender El Chadaille Bitshiabu. Both have played in the Champions League.
There is midfielder Ismaël Gharbi and striker Ilyes Housni plus Mbappé’s brother Ethan, Noha Lemina, both midfielders and right-back Yoram Zague. All are teenagers and all were born or grew up in Paris.
The approach is partly also driven by necessity. PSG’s finances are tight; they are on Uefa’s radar and have to be careful – after being fined and warned – not to breach their financial sustainability rules.
It is why talk of them making really, really big money moves – such as a bid for the Real Madrid-bound Jude Bellingham – was always out of the question although should Mbappé and Neymar go then obviously the landscape changes.
PSG point to a change of transfer policy. Messi’s contract was not renewed and neither was Sergio Ramos’s while they are hoping to appoint a new coach soon to replace Christophe Galtier. Negotiations are ongoing to bring in Julian Nagelsmann who, interestingly, did his best work under the ‘Red Bull’ approach at RB Leipzig where only young players were bought and the biggest transfer fee was just over €20 million.
Most intriguing of all, new investment is on its way. PSG’s Qatari owners, QSI, are planning to sell a minority stake, up to 15 per cent, which values the club at around four billion euros. A major driver for that is to help move to a new stadium with Stade de France a possibility.
But all of this, while suggesting the club is in a robust state and moving forward, was with Mbappé at its centre. Paris hosts the Olympics next year and the nation and the organisers want its poster boy to be part of the football team and part of the city; part of PSG.
Now no-one knows what will happen although surely there cannot be 12 months of accusation and counterclaim over Mbappé’s future. He has been here before, of course, and only signed his present deal when he was weeks away from being out of contract and seemingly heading for Madrid. Or so they thought.
Madrid would appear to be his endgame again. Last year, after posing on the pitch, he arrived at the Salon Bastille inside the stadium for our interview and revealed how he had called Real president Florentino Pérez personally to break the news to him that he was staying and that French president Emmanuel Macron had helped persuade him.
As Mbappé spoke, the noise of hundreds of PSG fans congregated outside in the teeming rain singing his name could be heard. In a side full of superstars, with Messi and Neymar, he was indisputably the club’s most important player. Now those fans will feel betrayed.
