Sounds like Mbappe will be free this weekend
Kylian Mbappé may want to check in with some friends to see if they want to hang out, because it seems like his weekends this August are going to be wide open.
A report from ESPN says that Paris Saint-Germain will leave Mbappé out of Saturday’s Ligue 1 opener against Lorient, the latest development in the bizarre battle of wills between the France star and his current employer.
The path to this point has been strange to say the least, and arguably extends back to last year. In May 2022, Mbappé — seemingly on the brink of a move to Real Madrid — made a U-turn, signing a three-year extension with PSG that among other things enraged La Liga (you know, the home of soccer’s bastion of responsible spending, Barcelona).
PSG’s 2022-23 season, despite ending in a Ligue 1 title, was a mess. Lionel Messi chose the allure of shopping at Publix and playing games in Frisco, Texas over dealing with the reality TV vibe at PSG, and it seems that Mbappé developed an exit plan of his own.
Namely, the 24-year-old reportedly wants to turn back the clock and make that Real Madrid deal happen after all. He informed PSG that he would not exercise the option in his contract that would extend it to the advertised three years. Without his say-so, his deal would end in June 2024, allowing a global star to walk as a free agent.
PSG isn’t having it, and has given Mbappé an ultimatum: sign a new deal that keeps him in Paris for longer, or be sold to another club this summer.
It’s a risky position for the club, especially in a market where the number of potential buyers at the asking price PSG will surely set is vanishingly small. Why acquire Mbappe’s playing rights now at an astronomical cost, when you can wait a year and not enrich one of your big rivals for European glory?
In unsurprising news (at least during this strange summer of transfer news), the only formal offer to emerge is a $1.1 billion one-season loan offer from Saudi side Al Hilal. It’s as odd as it sounds.
Mbappé apparently has no interest in spending a year in the Saudi Pro League, a position that hasn’t changed even as PSG has applied pressure. The star forward hasn’t played in a preseason game for the club since a July 21 win over Le Havre, was left off the roster for a tour of Japan, and has been “exiled” to train with the many other notable names PSG somehow has on their books but can’t get rid of.
At least they’re having fun, right?
That brings us to the latest chapter, and ESPN is reporting that Mbappé could be left out of all three of PSG’s league matches in August “as punishment” for making a choice that was built into his contract by PSG all of 15 months ago. That report says that at least some club officials are willing to hold firm no matter how long Mbappé refuses to renegotiate his contract.
However, PSG has some tough deadlines looming. While the club may or may not be able to roll through early Ligue 1 games without Mbappé, the reality is that Ligue 1 was decided by a single point last season, and that was with Mbappé and Messi. Wealthier challengers like Marseille, Lille, Monaco, and Lyon had their own stumbles, and any could pose a true threat to PSG given all the drama at the Parc des Princes.
More importantly for PSG, the squad registration deadline for this year’s Champions League is on September 2. Any plan to play hardball like this would require leaving Mbappé off their final list, but it’s beyond belief that a club so desperate to finally succeed in the biggest competition of them all would enter the group stage without its best player.
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