Mbappé’s most likely destination is Real Madrid – 06/13/2023 – Sport

First lost Lionel Messi. Now PSG, the Qatar-backed champions of France, could be facing the loss of another of the game’s biggest stars: Kylian Mbappé.

Mbappé, 24, one of the world’s most famous athletes and the cornerstone of the club’s plans to rebuild its identity around a core of top French talent, has informed PSG in a letter that he will not renew his contract when it expires in June. next year, according to an executive familiar with the negotiations. The executive was not authorized to speak publicly about the case, given the sensitive nature of the cases.

Mbappé’s decision could force PSG to consider an option they would rather avoid: selling the player’s rights as early as this summer, rather than risk losing him for free when his contract expires. If the club consider offers for Mbappe, the team is expected to demand a price well in excess of $200m (£200m), and possibly one that could surpass the world record for a player.

Top PSG executives were stunned by Mbappé’s letter, according to the executive, and learned of it after being contacted by a French news outlet who said it had received a copy before it was sent to the club. A spokesman for Mbappe did not respond to a request for comment. Team representatives also declined to comment on the letter or how the club had been made aware of Mbappé’s intentions, which were first reported by French sports newspaper L’Equipe.

PSG faced a similar crisis over Mbappe’s future last summer, when the then-out-of-contract striker was poised to join Real Madrid before a last-minute, cash-heavy effort convinced him to stay on. Paris. Retaining him was a priority for Qatar, who have bankrolled PSG for more than a decade and were eager to retain their team’s biggest star in the year they host the men’s World Cup.

The contract that Mbappé ended up signing was for two years, with an option for the player for a third season. In his letter, seen by The New York Times, Mbappé told the team he will not be exercising the option, meaning his current contract and, most likely, his history at PSG will end after next season – unless the club find a team willing to pay to acquire it sooner.

Once again, the most likely destination for Mbappé is Real Madrid, the Spanish club that was his favorite team when he was a boy and which offered him the biggest contract in his history just a year ago.

Since the failed negotiations with the Madrid club, Mbappé’s star has only grown, notably at the World Cup in Qatar, where he led France to the final against Messi and Argentina. Mbappé almost single-handedly battled to a second consecutive title for France, scoring all three of his team’s goals in a thrilling final that the Argentines won on penalties.

Both Messi and Mbappé then returned to Paris and helped PSG win a second consecutive French league title.

The French striker’s stated desire to leave PSG comes just days after Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez responded positively to a fan question about whether the Spanish club would sign Mbappé. The Spanish top hat replied yes, “but not this year”. That may be about to change.

Last summer, in an interview with the Times ahead of the European season and the World Cup, Mbappé spoke about his admiration for Real Madrid, a club that had invited him to train in Spain even before he reached adolescence, and whose stars stamped posters on your bedroom wall. After his invitation to train in Madrid, Mbappé vowed to return to the club one day, he said, but his decision to reject a record Madrid offer to renew with PSG had raised doubts about whether his dream would be realised.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” Mbappé said at the time, acknowledging that even if he didn’t play for Real Madrid, the team orbited his professional career in a profound way. “You’ve never been there, but it feels like home or something.”

Real Madrid’s presence in negotiations last year helped raise Mbappé’s price. When Real Madrid offered a contract worth more than $250 million (R$1.2 billion) for three years, PSG were forced to strike back with an even bigger deal, which included the release clause he now plans to exercise.

While PSG were not particularly sad to see Messi go after his two seasons in France, the possible loss of Mbappé, a French national treasure bred in the Paris banlieues, the ring of suburbs and satellite towns surrounding the capital, would signal a major crisis over the direction of the club.

Mbappé had largely escaped the wrath of the club’s supporters for a season that yielded yet another French title, a success that has now become so commonplace it is barely celebrated, but included another year of Champions League failure, the biggest goal of european football.

Messi, in his final months with the team, became an object of scorn: booed by fans during matches and suspended for two weeks by the club after an unauthorized holiday trip to Saudi Arabia towards the end of the season. Fans also expressed their anger at other key players, including Neymar, the Brazilian who, along with Messi and Mbappé, formed the dream attack and who promised to be the most feared in football.

After signing his extension with PSG in 2022, Mbappé said in an interview in New York that his decision to stay at the club was partly down to his not wanting to leave as a free agent, depriving PSG of a sale that would have netted him €2. nine digits. Now, the club and Mbappé find themselves in exactly the same situation.

Under his current deal, Mbappé had until July 31 to let the club know whether he would sign an automatic contract extension on terms that the club believe are the highest in European football. In the months before the letter was sent this week, Mbappé’s family and his lawyer had been in discussions with the club about a new multi-year deal.

His apparent desire to move could mean a rerun of the same soap opera that gripped France last year, when even French President Emmanuel Macron was called upon to persuade Mbappé to stay in the country as he prepared to defend his FIFA World Cup title. World conquered in 2018.

For PSG, the biggest impediment to winning Mbappé back is not financial, but sporting. The team, despite its routine domestic success, seems to be stuck in a perennial crisis behind the scenes: it is already facing a rebuild on and off the field, including the hiring of a new manager for the second consecutive year.

Messi’s departure –he said he was announced as joining Inter Miami, from the United States– was foreseen, and the club is open to selling Neymar while it restructures. Losing Mbappé, too, under the current circumstances could plunge a team long known for its stars into a worrying period of uncertainty.