Kylian Mbappe is almost certainly now the highest-paid footballer in the world.
Ahead of PSG’s final Ligue 1 match of the season against Metz,
in celebration of signing a new three-year contract, Mbappe was paraded on the pitch
alongside club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, much to the delight of a fanbase who had
assumed this would be his last game for the club before joining Real Madrid.
But, against all expectation, Mbappe has decided to stay – and this is the story of that decision.
It is no exaggeration to say that Kylian Mbappe has been an obsession
of Real’s president Florentino Perez. In fact, many of the club’s key decisions
in recent times have been guided by their mission to secure Mbappe.
When head coach Carlo Ancelotti rejoined Real last summer, he was informed that players would have to
be sold to accommodate Mbappe’s wages. It’s partly why Madrid headed into the campaign without Sergio
Ramos and Raphael Varane and why, in previous windows, the club also sold Sergio Reguilon,
Achraf Hakimi and Martin Odegaard, helping to create what became known as the “Mbappe fund”.
Madrid’s fixation also had the knock-on effect of dictating the intensity of
their attempts to sign Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund. Sources close to the
situation believed that the player’s preference earlier this year was actually to join Madrid
and yet now, having had an opportunity of sign both players, Real have ended up with neither.
It’s a heavy sporting and political blow for Perez. More broadly, however,
this is a deal that stokes the tensions between old money and new money in modern football.
On Twitter, Mbappe’s mother — who has been central to the negotiations — rebuked a French journalist
who dared suggest her son had broken his word to Madrid. Elsewhere, La Liga president Javier
Tebas described Al-Khelaifi as “dangerous” and described the deal as an “insult” to football.
Reports suggest Mbappe will earn €1 million per week at PSG
although club sources insist he is earning less, around €40 million per year.
They also insist that this offer remained marginally less than the one Madrid had put on
the table when all signing fees, wages and image rights considerations were taken into account.
PSG first thought they had Mbappe signed this time last year. At the end of last season,
shortly before the European Championship, PSG were left with the impression that
Mbappe intended to renew his contract. He was aware of interest from Real Madrid,
as his deal had only a year remaining, but PSG were assured that he wished to stay in Paris.
In truth, some involved in the negotiations suspected that Mbappe’s ploy was to go to
Euro 2020, drive up his value and then sign enhanced terms at PSG. That didn’t go to plan.
Mbappe did not score a goal and missed the decisive penalty as France exited in the last-16
stage against Switzerland. When Mbappe returned to PSG, his name was booed by the club’s fans at the
Parc des Princes before the opening match of the league season, interpreted in some quarters as a
response to his failures at Euro 2020 but also a public disapproval of his refusal to extend.
Mbappe became more distant and withdrawn from the club.
At no point, however, did his professionalism waver in training.
His mood was also lifted by the signing of friend Achraf Hakimi from Inter Milan,
while he was also impressed by the club’s moves for Lionel Messi,
Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Georginio Wijnaldum and Nuno Mendes.
Despite this, speculation mounted that Madrid would make a late move in last summer’s window
to buy Mbappe a year before his contract expired. By the middle of August, Mbappe had rejected two
different contract offers from PSG and the club were becoming concerned. Mbappe is advised mostly
by his parents. His mother was at the heart of the contract negotiations that have made him the
highest-paid player in the world, exceeding the £25 million net that Messi earns. Last summer,
however, PSG had the impression that his mother was keener on a move to Madrid,
while his father gave the impression of wishing to stay a little longer in Paris.
The question, however, is the extent to which Madrid truly attempted to sign Mbappe last summer.
What we do know is that Madrid made an opening bid, worth €160 million, for Mbappe on the
evening of August 24, a week before the window closed. PSG were initially baffled,
as news of the bid leaked publicly before it had even made its way onto their email server.
When the offer came, it was immediately rejected.
In truth, senior personnel in Paris doubted that Madrid, ravaged by the financial impact
of the pandemic and the cost of their stadium rebuild, genuinely had the funds at their
disposal. They wondered if Madrid were publicly posturing and securing a rejection from PSG
to give Mbappe the impression they had done everything in their power to sign the striker.
This would then leave them perfectly positioned to sign Mbappe in the summer.
Additionally, Perez required some positive press coverage after his failure to pull off the Super
League, the club’s inability to win last season’s La Liga and the departure of several key players.
When the window closed, Madrid-based newspaper AS published a graphic of Mbappe,
wearing a PSG shirt, superimposed behind prison bars. Behind the scenes,
PSG became more flexible. They initially wanted to tie Mbappe down to a new long-term contract
but they realised his camp had no intention of agreeing to this.
Various alternatives were laid out. PSG wanted a three-year extension,
which would provide resale value, but were also open to a two-year extension if Mbappe insisted.
The club’s pitch was that, at 23, Mbappe is young enough to
win the Champions League with PSG and then have his adventures elsewhere.
Additionally, PSG offered to make Mbappe the centrepiece of the club’s commercial operations,
as the boy from Bondy, in the Parisian suburbs just seven miles from the centre of Paris.
Madrid initially suggested they would come back and sign Mbappe
in January but this did not materialise.
That possibility lessened when the two clubs were drawn against one another in the Champions League.
Mbappe scored home and away against Real for a 2-0 aggregate lead, before a 17-minute implosion
from PSG and a Karim Benzema hat-trick turned the tables. PSG crashed out of the Champions
League once more and despite easily winning Ligue 1, this had been an underwhelming season.
Amid the turmoil, there had been an increasing expectation in Madrid that Mbappe’s signature
would be a formality this summer. Real’s offer to Mbappe was fiercely competitive,
including granting Mbappe large control over his image rights, and even in the week prior to his
PSG extension, those close to the negotiations were confident he had agreed terms with the club.
Sources suggest that Mbappe had even gone as far as to arrange viewings of properties in Madrid.
But by the Thursday before the news broke,
PSG were already confident they finally had an agreement, although messages were
still being exchanged internally into the early hours of Saturday morning
and it was only late on the Saturday afternoon that Mbappe finally applied his signature.
For Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), which owns PSG,
there is a broader appeal to Mbappe’s renewal. This is the World Cup year
and Qatar is the host. Many observers believe it would be embarrassing to lose Mbappe just
before the country’s big moment. PSG sources are at pains to deny this,
arguing that the club only wants to retain the man they consider the best footballer on the planet.
And that’s exactly what they’ve done.