The Parc des Princes was not only the scene of Paris Saint-Germain’s league debut on Saturday, but also a formidable turning point in the club’s tense relationship with Kylian Mbappé. Before the match against Lorient (0-0), the footballer, out of Luis Enrique’s first list, went to speak with Nasser Al-Khelaifi in his office at the stadium. The long meeting changed everything in the eyes of the PSG president, according to sources familiar with the conversation, who value in a special way that the talk was face to face between the footballer and the leader, without the presence of the mother and agent, Fayza Lamari. Mbappé promised to open negotiations to find a formula that prevents him from leaving for free in the summer of 2024, as had been his intention in recent weeks. If the terms of the verbal agreement on Saturday are maintained, the footballer will not move this summer, he will play this season at PSG and will have the power to continue at the club later or leave in 2024 in exchange for a transfer, with no further objections from the club. . Until now the player had refused this formula. The sources of the player’s environment consulted did not want to comment.
When he finished speaking with Al-Khelaifi, Mbappé went to the locker room to be with his teammates before the game. This Sunday morning he has returned to first team training and could play next Saturday in the second day of Ligue 1 in Toulouse.
Until now, the last thing PSG had known about the intentions of its star was the content of the letter he sent them on June 12, although it dated almost a year earlier, on July 15, 2022, less than two months after sign the renewal until 2024. In the document, Mbappé informed PSG that he did not want to activate the option, contained in the May 2022 agreement, to extend his relationship with the club by one year. He also expressed his intention to fulfill that agreement until the end, that is, until June 2024, so that at that point he would be free and would go free.
For the club, that plan meant a serious financial problem and a betrayal. According to sources close to the conversations that led to this contract extension, the footballer always assured Al-Khelaifi that if he left the club he would do so leaving a transfer, something he also said in various interviews. After the letter of June 12, which the player sent to L’Equipe Before the club, PSG wrote him several in which he explained the difficulties in which this movement placed the institution. They told him that they would be forced to sell players to avoid breaking the rules of the fair play financial, and they assured him that his decision would also mean the dismissal of club employees.
At PSG they were convinced that Mbappé had taken that step because he had an agreement closed with Real Madrid to move to the Bernabéu in 2024 and pocket a succulent transfer bonus, something that the club chaired by Florentino Pérez always denied. In the offices of the Parisian club they even suggested that they were considering going to FIFA to denounce an agreement that they considered irregular, although they admitted that they lacked evidence. They did not take that step.
While PSG matured its discontent, the days passed and by July 31, Mbappé earned the right to collect 80 million euros as a loyalty bonus, an amount that he will collect during the next year.
By then, the footballer was training in Paris with the discard group while the team was on tour in Japan. That was one of Al-Khelaifi’s moves to show that the type of leadership he exercised at the club had changed radically. The transformation had already begun when Leo Messi traveled to Saudi Arabia in May without permission from the club to fulfill a personal advertising commitment. The club separated him until he publicly apologized and then did not renew his contract.
When the team returned from the Asian tour, Mbappé continued to sit out of first-team training, and then was left out of the squad for the first game. Al-Khelaifi had conveyed to him that he wouldn’t play a minute if he remained determined to exhaust his contract, reject all buyout offers this summer and walk away for free next summer. The PSG president had already sent a general message of change of tone in the first talk to the group of footballers at the new Poissy training center: no one was above the club.
Following very constructive and positive talks between Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbappe before yesterday’s game, the player was reinstated to the team for training this morning. pic.twitter.com/MRXPO0wbIz
— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_espanol) August 13, 2023
The leader has maintained his position since he said that he would leave the footballer out if he maintained his intention to fulfill the contract and leave for free. Until Mbappé appeared in his office on Saturday and the situation returned more or less to the point before the letter of June 12. Until shortly before that day, the club and the footballer were negotiating a contract extension until 2026 or even 2027 that included substantial economic improvements and the entry of Qatar Sports Investments, the Qatari fund that owns PSG, as an investor in several of the player’s companies.
After Saturday’s game against Lorient, Mbappé met Al-Khelaifi again at the stadium, in a meeting that was also attended by Luis Enrique, the coach, and Luis Campos, the sports director. This Sunday the player returned to the discipline of the team. Ahead are the talks to articulate the details of the agreement through which the club trusts that Mbappé, as agreed with Al-Khelaifi, will continue in Paris this season, and even beyond, or leave next summer in exchange for a transfer. .
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