Mbappé returns to work with PSG

2023-07-17 15:58:31

After enjoying almost a month of vacation in which his name has once again been incessantly on everyone’s lips, Kylian Mbappé returned to work with PSG on Monday. The Bondy star was summoned, along with the rest of the internationals, to pass a series of medical tests and have a light session in the gym, before putting himself under the command of Luis Enrique on Tuesday in what will be the real kick-off against the grass for the new project of the Parisian team. And the world champion arrived on time for the appointment.

Aboard a black van with tinted windows, the top scorer in PSG history entered the training center in Poissy shortly after 10 am, surrounded by enormous media expectation. Once inside the facilities, and protected from the cameras that awaited his arrival, the ‘7’ of PSG met up with old teammates such as the Brazilian Neymar or the Spanish-Moroccan Achraf Hakimi, and also had the opportunity to greet various of the new incorporations undertaken in the last weeks, case of the Spanish Marco Asensio.

It was the first time that the striker had appeared at the PSG facilities since the letter he sent to PSG, dated almost a year earlier, came to the fore on June 12, to communicate his decision not to execute the clause that allowed him to renew unilaterally his contract until June 30, 2025. A letter that sparked a war between the star and Nasser Al-Khelaïfi that could have a decisive battle this Tuesday, when the leader goes to witness Mbappé’s first training session under the aegis of Luis Enrique.

Al-Khelaïfi gave Mbappé a two-week ultimatum on July 5 to make a decision about the two options that PSG keeps on the table: renewal or sale this summer. The term is coming to an end and the two parties are still locked in their starting positions.

Mbappé maintains his intention to exhaust the contract that links him to PSG until June 30, 2024, which would allow him to collect the 80 million that he has stipulated within the loyalty clause if he continues in the team on September 2 -40 He would pocket them already on August 1 – and leave then to also receive a succulent transfer bonus in his new destination, predictably Real Madrid. PSG, on the other hand, does not contemplate this scenario, since losing its top star for free just two years after making him the highest paid footballer in the world would be a huge discredit for the Parisians and a tremendous economic setback when they already have problems. with UEFA on account of financial ‘fair play’. Qatar’s intention is to renew him or leave this summer to receive more than 200 million euros for whom he has been his flagship in recent campaigns.

Any of these possibilities goes through a meeting that Al Khelaïfi and Fayza Lamari, Mbappé’s mother and agent, will foreseeably hold in the coming days. Time is running out for the Parisians, who will head to Japan on Saturday for part of the pre-season and play three friendly matches in the country of the rising sun.

Real Madrid, waiting

PSG has prepared a plan B in case Mbappé finally leaves and would have an agreement practically closed with Dusan Vlahovic so that the still attacker from Juventus lands in the Parc des Princes. He has also executed the clause to recover Xavi Simmons, after the good campaign that the Dutchman has completed at PSV. The one who was a Barça youth squad could stay at PSG or go on loan, with Leipzig as the main candidate, but his fate depends on what happens with Mbappé.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid remains waiting. The club chaired by Florentino Pérez contemplated the arrival of the star in 2024 and that continues to be the idea they have in Valdebebas. But in the ‘white house’ they do not lose sight of what is happening in Paris, in case the soap opera ends up exploding and Mbappé ends up donning the number ‘9’ that has remained vacant since Benzema’s departure to Saudi football.