2023-07-22 15:52:20
PSG dismissed Kylian Mbappé on Friday from his tour of Japan and South Korea. A strong gesture that will certainly not ease the climate of tension that has been going on for weeks between the Parisian club and the star striker. Between affirmation of the institution and “mismanagement” of this file, this situation will leave traces whatever the outcome of this showdown. Explanations.
Published on: 07/22/2023 – 15:52
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PSG decided to strike hard, Friday evening July 21, when publish on their site the list of players called up for his tour of Japan and South Korea (July 22-August 3). Between the n°6 Marco Verratti and the n°8 Fabian Ruiz, no trace of the n°7 Kylian Mbappé. It’s not a mistake, but a strong choice of the Parisian club, which decided to do without its star for this internship.
Exit the strong man at the heart of the Parisian sports project: “Kyky” will spend the next thirteen days in the “loft” of undesirables, already populated by other players like Leandro Paredes, Colin Dagba, Georginio Wijnaldum or even Julian Draxler – all placed on the transfer list for this summer. A new episode, and not the least, in the tumultuous relations that PSG and Kylian Mbappé have been experiencing for several weeks.
“We have the impression of a desperate club, which does not know how to solve the problem”, considers with FranceInfo Nicolas Kssis-Martov, journalist at So Foot magazine. The situation may result from a “huge misunderstanding”, he continues, but it is “in any case” symptomatic of “poor management of the Mbappé case on the part of PSG”.
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For the journalist, it is also proof “of the problems of operation and management of the workforce within the (Parisian club) for many years, which crystallize around a player who is also presented as the heart of the club and its project “.
“An Incredible Failing Situation”
The Parisian club has had little taste for the evolution of events since June 12: that day, Kylian Mbappé – hired until 2024 – warns PSG by mail that he will not activate the additional year included as an option in his contract. This decision opens the door to a departure, but the player says he will stay in Paris for another year.
Then Parisian President Nasser al-Khelaïfi makes remarks in the form of an ultimatumJuly 6, during the presentation to the press of the new Parisian coach Luis Enrique: “If Kylian wants to stay, we want him to stay. But he has to sign a new contract. We don’t want to let the best player in the world leave for free”.
Read alsoThe soap opera Mbappé restarts, the PSG sports project in troubled waters
The tone hardened even more on July 18, when Nasser al-Khelaïfi gave a speech to the Parisian squad at the club’s new training center in Poissy. “If someone does not want to be here to defend our colors, the door is open,” he said, in particular. reported by The Team. “The club is bigger than anyone here. Even bigger than me.”
While Kylian Mbappé has until July 31 to extend with the Parisian club, he is not deviating from his guideline of recent weeks – to stay at PSG without extending his contract. Opposite, the Parisian club believe that the player already has an agreement with Real Madrid to leave free in 2024, and he refuses to deprive himself of a transfer fee.
“It’s still incredible that after all these years when PSG has never succeeded in asserting its institution and that it is this year that it does so, and this vis-à-vis an international star”, explained Friday on RMC journalist and columnist Daniel Riolo. “That they come to this peak, to this earthquake that we have never seen in any club, I find that, on both sides, it is an absolutely incredible situation of failure.”
Kylian Mbappé, “for sale”, can still refuse to be transferred
Direct consequence of the current standoff: Kylian Mbappé “is for sale now”, according to a close friend of the Parisian club quoted by the sports department of Radio France. In addition, a source participating in the negotiations assures AFP that PSG has already received an offer of 300 million euros from a club in Saudi Arabia to secure the services of the French striker.
But despite his desire to put the institution above individualities in this affair, the renewed authority of the Parisian club seems limited and Kylian Mbappé still has all the keys in hand. The latter can be patient and accept his situation, whatever the fate imposed on him until the end of his contract. And if PSG agrees with another club by the end of the transfer window (September 1), the captain of the Blues can still refuse to be transferred.
Worse: if this showdown leads to a stalemate between the two parties, Kylian Mbappé’s entourage has already hinted that the player was ready to stay on the bench for a season, according to a club source quoted by AFP. “We are talking about one of the best players in the world and the captain of the France team. (Put him on the bench) would be a very violent gesture, but normally we will not come to this end”, according to Nicolas Kssis-Martov.
The PSG-Mbappé soap opera is still far from having known its outcome, and even if the club wants to be intransigent for the moment, water will still flow under the bridges of the Seine. One thing is certain: the PSG sports project will have to exist without Kylian Mbappé at least for the next thirteen days.
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