Kylian Mbappé: he refuses Saudi Arabia, what now?

Kylian Mbappé ended up saying no to Saudi Arabia and its fabulous offers.

[Updated July 26, 2023 at 2:43 p.m.] Courted by the Al-Hilal club in Saudi Arabia, Kylian Mbappé has decided to stay at PSG. The player wants to go to the end of his contract which ends in 2024. The captain of the Blues is pushed towards the exit by the club which ousted him from the group for the tour in Japan. The capital club does not want to let him go for free next year. Al-Hilal had asked 300 million to try to enlist the tricolor player and PSG had accepted this offer. Despite a record salary of 700 million euros per year, he preferred the sporting aspect to financial attraction. By refusing, Kylian Mbappé will still inherit a loyalty bonus equivalent to 40 million euros.

His future at PSG, however, still remains rather vague. FC Barcelona is interested in the Frenchman’s file and wishes to make a transaction with players in the balance. Chelsea, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Tottenham are also involved, not forgetting Real Madrid, which remains the preferred destination of the captain of the France team. According to the Gazetta dello Sport, there is even a predefined contract with the Madrid club for the 2024-2025 season.

The club is not free to do as it pleases, especially when it comes to a football personality such as Kylian Mbappé detailed this weekend on RMC Philippe Piat (president of the National Union of Professional Footballers ). If “the regulatory situation allows the club to do with its workforce as it wants, after September 1, things have to come back”. Otherwise, he warned that the union had the power “to oblige to ask for the respect of the texts and to make it play because otherwise it would be harassment. It would become illegal in terms of labor law. When it it’s a not very well known player, we can make believe that he’s not in good shape. As far as the best player in the world is concerned, it’s not possible to make believe that it’s not for reasons of sanction. The text to which I refer provides for sanctions if a player is sidelined for reasons that are not sporting. Procedures will be implemented “, thus launched the official of the National Union professional footballers.

In theory, Kylian Mbappé has until July 31 to decide to extend his contract. As things stand, his contract ends in June 2024, and he will be able to join the club of his choice from January 1, 2024. If he decides to activate his extension option, this date of end will be postponed to June 2025. But last June, the striker told PSG that he had decided not to activate this option, as franceinfo reminds us. A position that has not changed since, given the latest information on the subject. As a result, Kylian Mbappé would leave PSG free in June 2024, if the club does not sell him by then. This would then constitute a colossal shortfall for PSG.

At the beginning of the month, Nasser al-Khelaïfi, the president of PSG, had been categorical on the Mbappé file. He told reporters after a press conference: “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 go for free. (… ) I was really shocked to learn that he intended to leave for free. It’s very disappointing because Kylian is a fantastic boy, a real gentleman, and to leave for free, weakening the biggest French club, it’s not him. When I received this information, I was shocked and disappointed.” Words reported by Le Parisien.

“Nobody is above the club”, hammered Nasser al-Khelaïfi again last Tuesday, during a PSG training session. Words reported by France Bleu Paris. Kylian Mbappé, whose market value is estimated at 180 million euros according to the Transfermarkt site, has not reacted for the moment. During a press conference with the French team in mid-June, he said: “My objective [is] to continue, to stay at the club, it’s my only option at the moment”, recalls franceinfo .

PSG’s position vis-à-vis Kylian Mbappé is clear: either the player agrees to extend his contract until June 2025 or he agrees to be transferred this summer. Two proposals that the star striker can refuse, because his current contract binds him to the Parisian club until June 2024, and he therefore has no legal obligation to comply with the wishes of the management of PSG. But the Parisian club has not said its last word. Indeed, according to information from the Parisian, if Kylian Mbappé decides to stay in the club under the terms of his current contract next year, PSG will not play him for the entire 2023-2024 season. It would then be a serious blow for Kylian Mbappé, who aims to become the best football player in the world. Still, the player seems willing to deal with this eventuality. A source within the club told AFP that the attacker’s entourage “had hinted that he was ready to stay on the bench for a season”.

A hypothesis that PSG captain Marquinhos hopes will not come true. “We always want to have the great players on our side. I hope we will find a good solution so that he can be part of the group and help us this season,” he said during a press conference in Osaka (Japan), reports AFP. The players arrived in the city this Sunday, July 23 in the morning. Referring to a “delicate” subject, Marquinhos however clarified that it is “a decision that passes over us, the players, it is the management”.

The announcement by PSG of the absence of Kylian Mbappé from the group of players present for the club’s tour of Asia has in any case surprised the entire football world, including the striker’s teammates. According to information from RMC Sport, the Parisian players are “surprised” by this sidelining, even if the atmosphere within the group is “rather good”. On the side of the PSG women’s team, a player has clearly taken a position in favor of Kylian Mbappé in the showdown between him and the club. Striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto posted a photo of her with Kylian Mbappé and Pauleta on Instagram on Sunday, writing: “Force KM7.” A clear message of support which remains, for the moment, unique among PSG players. The main interested party has not yet spoken about his situation in the club. He’s not completely silent though. Kylian Mbappé posted two images this Sunday, the first to encourage Les Bleues in their match against Jamaica and the second to congratulate Léon Marchand on his world record in the 400m medley.

If Kylian Mbappé has never hidden his desire to join the Real Madrid team, the Spanish club has not yet reacted to the latest developments in his situation at PSG at this stage. The Madrid leaders are in a strong position and could decide to wait until his contract ends in June 2024 to sign Kylian Mbappé without having to pay transfer fees. “I’m still calm,” assured the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Perez, when he arrived at a polling station this Sunday, as reported by RMC Sport. The Spaniards are called to the polls for early legislative elections. Asked about the Mbappé file and about a possible arrival of the player in his club this summer, Florentino Perez did not wish to answer, indicating: “Today, we vote. We don’t think of anything else, it’s a very important subject for the Spaniards.” But his smile displayed during these remarks will not fail to be commented on.

Other clubs have however already expressed their interest in a possible transfer of the star striker from the Parisian formation. Thus, according to information from RMC Sport, Chelsea “clearly positioned themselves and took information”. The media nevertheless specifies that there is no offer for the moment. According to the Spanish sports daily Marca, quoted by Eurosport, the English clubs Manchester United and Tottenham are also interested, as is the Italian club AC Milan. The daily L’Equipe, also quoted by Eurosport, reports for its part that the Liverpool club is also on the file.

Another club shows more clearly its ambition to see the PSG star arrive in his team: that of Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia. According to RMC Sport, the Saudi club is ready to offer Kylian Mbappé a contract of 400 million euros over two years. The Saudis are also ready to offer a one-year contract to the Parisian player in order to let him leave for Madrid in the summer of 2024. An offer of 200 million euros has also been made by Al-Hilal to PSG in order to buy the last year of the footballer’s contract. A pharaonic contract which however has almost no chance of succeeding, given the professional ambitions of Kylian Mbappé. It should also be remembered that, regardless of the offers that PSG could accept to transfer their striker, it will be up to Kylian Mbappé to validate, or not, a possible transfer.

The PSG striker was present, Saturday, July 22 in the afternoon, at the club’s new training center in Poissy, indicates Le Parisien. He participated in a “loft” training session, the name given to undesirable players from whom PSG wishes to part. At the end of the session, Kylian Mbappé went to meet some supporters present in front of the training center. An audience that was mostly very young. Smiling and relaxed, he took the opportunity to sign autographs, jerseys and take selfies with his fans, but he remained silent in the face of questions from journalists about his showdown with PSG, reports AFP.

Kylian Mbappé has therefore joined the “loft”, where there are players like Leandro Paredes or Julian Draxler. In a press release published this Saturday, the National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) denounced the fact of isolating in a “loft” players “deemed ‘undesirable’ or that the clubs wish to see leave at all costs, despite the compliance with contracts signed in good and due form”, making direct reference to the Parisian case. “As of September 1, under Article 507 of the Charter, clubs will have the obligation to reinstate all players who have been sidelined in the professional group. All”, continues the only French union of professional footballers. .

“Until then, all these players must benefit from the same working conditions as the rest of the professional workforce,” adds the UNFP. Reminding “managers that exerting pressure on an employee – via the deterioration of his working conditions for example – to force him to leave or to accept what the employer wants constitutes moral harassment, which French law strongly condemns” , the union indicates that it reserves “the right to take all civil and criminal proceedings against clubs that behave in this way”.

Origins, youth and formation. Born on December 20, 1998 in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, Kylian Mbappé put on his first crampons in 2004, at the age of 6, in the city where his family then lived, in Bondy. And he already has some predispositions. His father, Wilfrid Mbappé Lottin, born in Douala, Cameroon, is a former footballer who became an under-15 coach in the city of Seine-Saint-Denis. His mother, Fayza Lamari, of Algerian origin, is a former handball player. In 2011, young Kylian trained at the INF Clairefontaine center. He then left the city in northeastern Paris where he was educated and continued his studies in Rambouillet.

AS Monaco. At the end of his training, in 2015, Kylian Mbappé joined the training center of AS Monaco, which at the time made his return to Ligue 1. He played his very first minutes in the elite on December 2, 2015 , entering at the end of the match against Stade Malherbe de Caen (1-1), at only 16 years and 11 months. His first professional goal came a few months later, in February 2016, against Troyes. At the time, Mbappé still alternated his performances between the under-19s (with whom he won the Gambardella Cup) and the A team. The same year, he obtained his STMG baccalaureate. The 2016-2017 season will be one of explosion with enormous performances in Ligue 1 (including a hat-trick against Metz) and his first goals in the Champions League where he begins to align the precocity records. At the end of this season marked by a Champions League semi-final against Juve, Monaco will win the French championship ahead of PSG. And it is Paris Saint-Germain, precisely, who will win the bet by recruiting the nugget when the biggest European clubs are already coveting him. In 44 matches with AS Monaco, Mbappé will have scored 26 goals (including 6 in C1) and made 11 assists.

Paris Saint Germain. In the very last hours of a crazy 2017 transfer window with the arrival of Neymar in Paris, Kylian Mbappé also joined PSG on a one-season loan with an option to buy for 180 million euros . He then becomes the second most expensive player in the history of French football, behind… Neymar himself.

How to summarize the five and a half seasons since spent in the capital? The numbers are already telling: in 237 performances in total, including some impressive matches, Kylian Mbappé scored 190 goals and 79 assists. We can also line up the brilliant strokes and distinctions that will dot these five years. Arrived just a few weeks ago at PSG, Kylian Mbappé will, for example, impress the whole of Europe with a shock against Bayern Munich in the Champions League (3-0 victory) from September 2017. He will continue with the title of ” Golden Boy” the same year (best European footballer under 21) and a seventh place in the Ballon d’Or at the end of 2017. In France, he will be the top French scorer of the calendar year with 33 goals. The season will end for its part in the spring of 2018, with a title of champion of France and thirteen achievements in the league.

At the end of 2018, with a World Cup in his pocket, Kylian Mbappé gained three places in the Ballon d’Or ranking, finishing fourth this time. He then won the first Kopa trophy, rewarding the best player in the world under the age of 21. At the end of the 2018-2019 season, he will take the place of top scorer in Ligue 1 with 33 goals, having been twice crowned best player and best prospect in Ligue 1 at the UNFP trophies.

The 2019-2020 season will be that of a national quadruple for PSG and Mbappé (championship, Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue and Trophée des Champions) as well as a Champions League final (1-0 defeat against Bavaria). With 18 goals in 20 games, Kylian Mbappé is again crowned top scorer in Ligue 1, despite a season disrupted by the Covid crisis. He also becomes at this time the most expensive player in the world according to analysts.

The 2020-2021 season will be that of a third crowning of top scorer in Ligue 1 (27 achievements) and a few more reference matches in the Champions League. But a second place in the league (Lille winning the trophy at PSG) and a chronic inability to seek the European title with his team will tarnish his individual performances. The following season will be in keeping or almost: French champion for the fifth time, Kylian Mbappé will finish both top scorer as well as top passer of the 2021-2022 season… During the 2022-2023 edition, despite a more complicated season for PSG, Kylian Mbappé once again becomes champion of France. He was also voted best player and top scorer.

Kylian Mbappé has become in a few years one of the pillars of the France team. In 2014, he was already selected for the under-17s and was quickly upgraded to the under-19s. The architect of the latter’s victory at the 2016 European Championships, he skipped the Espoirs team to join the A team directly the following year. His first selection dates back to March 16, 2017. Entry holder against Luxembourg, in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, he will already panic the opposing defense, aligning daring technical gestures and murderous kidney shots for about sixty minutes. In vain: the draw (0-0) against modest Luxembourg will be considered at the time as a snub. It will be necessary to wait until the end of August and the offensive festival of the Blues against the Netherlands (4-0) the same year for Kylian Mbappé to score his first goal in blue, in stoppage time. Previously, he will be the author of Other promising performances including a decisive pass against England in June.

On March 27, 2018, Kylian Mbappé became, at just 19, the youngest away scorer in the France team, during a friendly in Russia. With two goals that night, he will even be the youngest player to score a double since the post-war period. But it is during the 2018 World Cup, at 19 years and 6 months, that he will be able to reveal all his talent and all his precocity: the youngest player to participate in a major tournament and the youngest scorer of the Blues in a major tournament. ahead of David Trezeguet (against Peru), he will also be the youngest author of a double, in the round of 16 anthology against Argentina on June 30, 2018. Previously, he will have been flashed at 37 km / h, causing a penalty converted by Antoine Griezmann and will have offered three dangerous free kicks in the first half. Bondy’s prodigy will also shine with his dribbling and acceleration against Uruguay in the quarter-finals and against Belgium in the semi-finals, before scoring France’s fourth and final goal in the final against Croatia (4-2). This final will allow him to smash other precocity records and to be close to a certain Pelé. At the end of this World Cup, Kylian Mbappé receives the trophy for the best young player of the competition by FIFA.

Euro 2021 will have been less successful for the tricolor player: involved in most of the seven goals scored by the Blues during the competition, Kylian Mbappé will be the last major culprit (there have been others before him) of the elimination in the round of 16 against Switzerland. Fifth shooter for the French team in the penalty shootout after this game with twists and turns (3-3), the French striker decided to shoot on the right of Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer. The latter, author of a very big performance against the Blues, takes out the decisive parade.

After this failed European Championship, as after each match that has earned him criticism (defeat of the Blues in Turkey 0-2, victories against Kazakhstan 2-0 or Bosnia and Herzegovina 1-0), Kylian Mbappé has since demonstrated that he remained an indisputable holder at the forefront of the Blues. During the Final Four of the 2021 Nations League, won by France, he will be the author of an equalizer on penalty in the semi-final against Belgium (victory 3-2). The opportunity for him to honor, already, his fiftieth selection. He will also be the author of the goal of victory in the final against Spain 2-1. And his statistics remain very high, in friendly, as during the qualifications for the World Cup 2022 or even during the disastrous campaign of the Blues in the League of Nations this year, with among other things a quadruple against Kazakhstan (8-0) at the end of 2021 , or a double against South Africa last March (5-0).

At the 2022 World Cup, Kylian Mbappé is once again eagerly awaited. Voted top scorer in the competition with eight goals, the striker saw his dream of winning a second World Cup shattered by Argentina. Despite three goals in the final and a stunning scenario with two goals in two minutes, Kylian Mbappé will have to wait four years to possibly win a second World Cup.

*Salary which would have been negotiated following his extension at PSG in the summer of 2022 and revealed by Le Parisien in October.

With PSG, Kylian Mbappé’s career is not a long calm river. In latent war since 2017 with several European clubs, starting with Real Madrid, to claim the services of the star, the club of the capital would have gone very far in the maneuvers to dismiss its competitors. The surprise extension to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2022 was followed by several revelations about the huge contract negotiated with the striker, the promises made by the club about his place in the team, but also about his “rivals” internally that are Neymar and Messi. Mbappé wishing to become the one and only sporting leader of the club, the PSG would thus have committed to breaking the contracts of the Argentinian and the Brazilian when the French wanted it according to the Spanish daily Marca, providing for this an envelope of 500 million euros. ‘euro.

Intimidation attempts fomented by a “digital army”, commanded and directed by the PSG communication department, have also been reported by the Mediapart investigation site. Paris Saint-Germain has “firmly denied these” allegations.

According to the revelations of Marca, confirmed by the Parisian or RMC Sport last October, the French would regret not having left for Madrid and the Real track would still not be abandoned. On October 16, the French international denied rumors that he felt “betrayed” by PSG and wanted to leave the capital as soon as possible. “I am very happy, I never asked for my departure in January […]. I am not involved, neither near nor far, in this news. I was just as shocked as everyone “, did he declare.

In mid-June, L’Équipe however revealed that Kylian Mbappé had officially informed PSG that he did not intend to exercise the option of one more year and that, as a result, his contract will end in June 2024. An announcement that would have surprised PSG. Tensions came to a head on July 21, when the Parisian club announced that they would not be taking Kylian Mbappé on their Asia tour. Several media, including Radio France, then reported that the player is now up for sale in the summer of 2023. PSG’s discussions with the other teams for his transfer will, however, officially begin after July 31, the deadline set by the club for whether the player decides whether or not to extend his contract.

With the France team too, tensions can be mentioned. After having shaken up the leadership of Antoine Griezmann, creating a certain animosity between the two attackers according to a documentary from the channel L’Equipe, the association of Kylian Mbappé with Karim Benzema would not have been so obvious. Especially since seeing Real Madrid dismissed by Mbappé once again last spring would not have been to the liking of the recent Ballon d’Or. The World Cup in Qatar will not give the opportunity to check the good understanding of the trio, Benzema having had to leave the camp of the Blues even before the competition.

Kylian Mbappé also briefly clashed with the French Football Federation at the start of the school year, refusing to take part in a photo session scheduled for September 20 with the France team. The reason: the convention of the image rights of the players, associated without their agreement with the partner brands of the Blues. The star striker had been demanding for months a right to scrutinize the sponsors who would use his image. By his boycott, he won his case, twisting the arm of the FFF and its president Noël Le Graët so that the convention be reviewed as soon as possible.

Kylian Mbappé has a little brother, Ethan Mbappé, also a hopeful of French football. Franco-Congolese footballer Jirès Kembo Ekoko was also raised by the parents of the siblings.

Kylian Mbappé is very discreet about his private life. Many rumors have appeared, lending him relationships with several celebrities. Since the end of 2021, the player has appeared several times with Emma Smet without the two stars talking about a possible romance.

Nicknamed “Donatello” by his Paris Saint-Germain teammates, Kylian Mbappé would have been baptized “Kyks” on the side of the French team.

He got into the habit of donating all of his bonuses with the France team to associations, in particular 400,000 euros after the 2018 World Cup to the Premiers de Cordée association, of which he is the sponsor. He also donates to the Abbé-Pierre foundation.

He has multiplied partnership and sponsorship contracts with major brands such as Nike, EA Sports (for the recent FIFA 21 and FIFA 22), Dior and even with the NBA.

Recognized throughout the world, Kylian Mbappé has been compared to Thierry Henry or the Brazilian Pelé, especially after the 2018 World Cup, the latter having even indicated that he would undoubtedly have to put on his crampons “if Kylian continues to equal [his] records”. To which Mbappé replied: “The King will always remain the King”.