It’s been one of the best kept secrets of the past few years. One of those that has aroused the most fantasies, has been subject to all sorts of interpretations too. But contrary to what the official version would have you believe, not all PSG players heard the news of Kylian Mbappé’s extension half an hour before it was formalized on Saturday May 21 on the lawn of the Park.
The day before the formalization of the extension of the 2018 world champion, few were probably, like Mauricio Pochettino, informed of Mbappé’s decision. “I’m not going to lie to you, I don’t have the info, I don’t know what will happen, explained the Argentinian the day before at a press conference. And I don’t know when he’s going to announce it either. “If many players in the squad were to find themselves in the same uncertainty as their coach, there is one who had already been warned of the choice of number 7 in Paris.
“The teammates learned it on the pitch, but as I have a friendship with Kylian, I knew it a few days before, not a lot either”, admitted Achraf Hakimi in the program. The resistance, on the Spanish channel Movistar+. No surprise as the Moroccan side and the tricolor striker have forged a strong friendship since the former arrived in the capital at the start of the season. A little over a fortnight ago, the two men had also panicked the Spanish press by offering a getaway to Madrid during their days off.
In the show, Hakimi had fun discovering new friends, in search of the scoop that the whole planet was waiting for. “I received messages from people who I was not aware had my number, and from people who had not spoken to me for a long time, laughed the Moroccan. It was like, ‘What’s your friend going to do?’ Then when he stayed, they said to me, ‘You’re a motherfucker’”. And the joking side:
“I should have done the selfie like Pique: Kylian stays,” he said in reference to the now “Se queda” that the Spanish defender had posted with Neymar before the Brazilian finally left FC Barcelona in 2017.