Cold with the leaders of PSG because of his contractual situation, Kylian Mbappé could finally extend his contract to everyone’s surprise in the coming days.
[Updated August 13, 2023 9:48 PM] This is an unexpected turn of events until the last few hours. Engaged in a showdown with PSG since July following his decision not to extend his contract, Kylian Mbappé made his return this Sunday to the PSG first team group. The attacker participated normally in the training of the day within a collective from which he had been excluded for several weeks.
“After very constructive and positive discussions between Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbappé before the PSG-Lorient match on Saturday August 12, the player was reinstated in the first training team this morning,” said PSG. in a press release published at midday on Sunday August 13.
Since the French striker sent a letter in June announcing his desire to complete his contract, which expires in June 2024, the divorce seemed consummated between the two parties. Parisian leaders said they were inflexible. “We want him to stay, we can repeat it two or three times. But he can’t leave for free. It’s non-negotiable,” said President Nasser Al-Khelaifi on July 5. PSG then decided to remove the player from the main training group, depriving him in particular of the pre-season tour in Japan and South Korea.
Kylian Mbappé was also not selected for the first day of Ligue 1, Saturday against Lorient (0-0). But he appeared in the stands of the Parc des Princes, smiling and relaxed, alongside the club’s latest recruit, French striker Ousmane Dembélé with whom he was crowned world champion in 2018 with the Blues, and had made a tour in the PSG locker room before the match, two gestures seen as signs of appeasement and which had taken observers by surprise.
An extension is even in sight, according to RMC Sport. A very unlikely option a few days ago, but which is slowly gaining momentum. Confidence is in order within the Parisian management. The latest exchanges between the player and Nasser Al-Khelaïfi have been positive, with the striker opening the door to extra time. No agreement has yet been reached and the end of the PSG transfer window will be closely scrutinized as Neymar is announced on the departure and that Randal Kolo Muani would have been made a priority to strengthen the attack after the arrivals of Gonçalo Ramos and Ousmane Dembele. Until then, Kylian Mbappé could play his first match of the season when traveling to Toulouse on Saturday August 19 in Ligue 1.
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 would come 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 records of precocity. 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 day 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, after being 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 was during the 2018 World Cup, at 19 years and 6 months, that he could 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. The Bondy 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 2022 World Cup 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 it would not be taking Kylian Mbappé on his Asia tour. Several media, including Radio France, then reported that the player is now for sale from the summer of 2023. On August 13, 2023, PSG finally informed of his reintegration into the professional group without an extension being officially announced. .
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 by 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”.