Over the next few days, barring a change of heart that would surprise even himself, Kylian Mbappé will play his final two home games for Paris Saint-Germain.
The second of the pair, against Toulouse on May 12, will be less a match than a trophy presentation, as the champions-elect Parisiens will celebrate a third successive Championnat and sixth from the seven years Mbappé has spent at the club. Whether he and his teammates are in a celebratory mood will have been determined five days earlier, in his penultimate appearance at Parc des Princes.
By then, they’ll have faced Borussia Dortmund in the return leg of their Champions League semi-final (May 7, 2 p.m., DAZN). A 1-0 defeat after 90 minutes in Germany will have them playing catch-up from the opening whistle, and if they can’t overturn it they’ll have failed yet again to win the trophy they covet most. The post-Toulouse party will be a party only in name.
That 1-0 deficit, however, is one PSG should expect to overcome Tuesday. Dortmund, with all due respect, played above and beyond themselves at the Westfalenstadion, and a display more suited to their fifth-place position in the Bundesliga, combined with a meaningful Mbappé performance, will be more than enough to reverse the scoreline.
Should that happen, and should they go on to beat either Bayern Munich or Real Madrid at Wembley four weeks from Saturday, the entire conversation about the PSG project and Mbappé’s role within it will be changed overnight.
Yes, they’re desperate to win the Champions League. That goes without saying. The weight of legacy is one they’ve been carrying for quite some time, and its burden is surely among the factors that will almost certainly push Mbappé to sign for Real Madrid this summer.
At that point, a quite extraordinary period in the history of French football will have come to an end. What will it have meant? What, exactly, is Mbappé’s legacy?
Those six titles in seven seasons is certainly part of it, and it’s actually seven in eight for him, personally. Don’t forget, his first Ligue 1 championship came with AS Monaco, who finished eight points ahead of PSG in the spring of 2017. The Monégasques also advanced to the Champions League semifinals that May, losing to Juventus.
As PSG were not going to be upstaged again, they acquired Mbappé, then just 18, for €180 million – more than half the total salaries paid among Ligue 1’s other 19 clubs. The fee, the compensation of €45 million annually, and the €2 billion in overall transfer spending following the club’s 2011 takeover by Qatar’s sovereign investment fund effectively ended the French top flight as a competitive entity.
A lot of Mbappé’s legacy is tied to a financial reality that, ironically, cheapens it. Yes, he’s scored more than 250 goals for PSG and lifted 14 trophies in the capital, but he’s also gone out of the Champions League at the Round of 16 on four occasions. Facing an established European giant, such as Madrid or Bayern, is a different proposition than demolishing domestic opponents who’ve been weakened by a wealth imbalance. It doesn’t mean a PSG player’s accomplishments are meaningless, but they obviously come with an asterisk.
Of course, Mbappé’s international legacy is something else entirely. In 2016 he won the European Under-19 Championship with France. In 2021 he added the UEFA Nations League. Between those triumphs he hoisted the World Cup. Still just 25-years-old, he already has eight knockout goals at World Cup tournaments, and four goals from two finals. Rounding out his bona fides is his personal friendship with French president Emmanuel Macron.
Given his exploits with Les Bleus, where he trails only Thierry Henry and Olivier Giroud on the all-time goalscoring list, no one is in any doubt as to Mbappé’s ability. He is a genuinely generational talent. Which is precisely why he’s about to wind down his Paris Saint-Germain career — and why winning the Champions League in the blue and white would mean a lot to him, but even more to his club.
Without it, PSG remain what they’ve been since 2011: a billionaire’s club in a millionaire’s league. Mbappé’s exit, following those of Neymar and Lionel Messi, would signal the ultimate failure of the sport’s most ambitious project. They need the Champions League, and they need it now.
Mbappé’s legacy needs it too. Sure, he’ll have plenty of chances to win it at Real Madrid, but departing Paris without it would mean his legacy, at least at club level, would almost be starting from scratch when he gets there.
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