French soccer star Kylian Mbappé has revealed the secret of his future. The 23-year-old world champion is now staying at Paris Saint-Germain and not moving to Real Madrid. “I am convinced that I can continue to grow at a club that offers everything necessary to perform at the highest level,” said Mbappé on Saturday. His previous contract in Paris expired at the end of the season, so he could have switched for free.
In Paris, the attacker signed a new contract until June 30, 2025, ending a month-long debate about the exceptional player. Mbappé wanted to leave PSG last summer after superstar Lionel Messi was signed, for which he was booed by his own fans at the start of the season. He turned down a new PSG offer for a five-year contract with a reported salary of 50 million euros per season. Real made several offers for Mbappé, on the last day of the transfer window Real had offered over 200 million euros, but PSG declined.
Even before the contract was confirmed, Mbappé’s stay in Paris had caused violent reactions in Spain. The head of the Spanish league, Javier Tebas, ranted on Twitter that the way the probably very expensive extension was an “insult” to football. PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi is “as dangerous as the Super League”. However, Real was one of the founding members of the very Super League that failed miserably last year.
Spanish league announced complaint
The Spanish league announced that it would lodge a complaint against the contract with the European Football Union (UEFA), the French administrative and tax authorities and the European Union. This type of agreement would attack the economic stability of European football, endanger hundreds of thousands of jobs and the integrity of the sport, it said.
It was only shortly before the end of 2021 that it was said that Mbappé had decided to move to Real, David Alaba’s club. Now came the turning point. In any case, all the excitement about the contract extension should not have left any traces on the 23-year-old, unimpressed by this, the superstar put together a triple pack in Paris’ 5-0 home win against Metz in the last league game of the season. While Metz has to make it into the second division together with Bordeaux, Mbappé was top scorer in Ligue 1 for the fourth time in a row with 28 goals.
Mbappé has been playing for PSG since the summer of 2017, but was initially only on loan from AS Monaco before he was signed for 180 million euros after a year. He rose to become a superstar with the Parisians, but he and his star colleagues around Neymar and later Messi did not win the longed-for Champions League title, despite the sheikh millions from Qatar. During his time in Paris, Mbappé won the French championship four times and the cup twice. In 2018 he became world champion with the French national team. (apa)