In the wake of Kylian Mbappé’s email informing Paris Saint-Germain he would not be extending past the end of next season – backdated to July 2022 – the forward has now been set a public ultimatum by club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
Either the 24-year-old puts pen to paper on a new contract by the end of the month, or he is placed on the transfer list. In practice, Mbappé could feasibly see out the rest of his contract anyway and leave on a free transfer – which appears to be his intention anyway, given he has indicated he wants to play for PSG next season.
Al-Khelaifi had notably spoken of his disappointment at Mbappé for breaking a “verbal agreement“, and that leaving on a free and weakening PSG was “not like him“.
According to L’Équipe this evening, the Ligue 1 champions have now formally responded to their star man’s letter. The club indicates that they would like to see Mbappé stay at the club, but that should he submit a transfer request at the agreed time, it would be accepted. L’Équipe’s sources indicate that Mbappé and PSG had a verbal agreement over a sale next summer, but that the management had also initiated talks to convince him to extend past 2025.
PSG then go on to complain of the “damages” to the club caused by the announcement that Mbappé would be a free agent in 2024 – with his departure potentially impacting their FFP calculations, having already been sanctioned by UEFA last year. The club has also questioned the France captain’s apparent concerns on its transfer dealings last season. They recognise that the recruits were not up completely to the standard that was hoped for, but also question why he would send the letter in the middle of the summer window – “It’s true that we spoke of a very ambitious recruitment campaign, which we could only partially manage due to the market conditions and regulatory constraints in France and Europe. These conditions were completely out of our control, but we still tried to respond to your demands, unlike what we would have done for any other player without harming the club.”
GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin
