Striker Kylian Mbappé has been making headlines in recent weeks, even on vacation, for his situation at Paris Saint-Germain and, this time, it’s not for the best of reasons. Six PSG players complained to the club’s president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, for the comments made by the French star in an interview with France Football magazine, published this Saturday. In it, the striker says that the Parisians are “a divisive club” and that “it attracts gossip”.
The interview was given to France Football on June 12th, but was only published this Saturday, July 8th, and published in L’Equipe. In the interview, he openly criticized the club, as well as saying that he is unfairly criticized individually. Comments that have caused problems internally, with teammates, and externally, with fans. This in addition to an off-field dispute with the crowd. A part was dissatisfied with the player’s criticism of the club.
Of the six players who complained about Mbappé’s posture to PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, two are newly signed. There is also dissatisfaction in the locker room with Mbappé’s situation. PSG have signed three players so far this season: defender Milan Skriniar, striker Marco Asensio and midfielder Manuel Ugarte, in addition to coach Luis Enrique.
Mbappé is in his last year of contract, which ends in June 2024 The player announced to the club that he will not exercise the clause he had to renew until 2025 and that he will leave at the end of his contract PSG does not want to let the player leave for free: or renew and stay or leave this window In an interview, Mbappé criticized the club Mbappé’s comments left six players dissatisfied, including two newly signed
Mbappé called PSG a “divisive club” and “attracts gossip”
For Mbappé, people have become accustomed to his very high level of performance, which means that anything that is not spectacular is already the target of criticism. “Are people normalizing my performances? Yes, but at the same time, I don’t blame them.”
“In France they saw me grow up, they see me all the time, at PSG every week and in the French national team. I’ve been scoring a lot of goals for years. So for people, it’s becoming normal. I never complained that my updates normalized”, continued the player.
“I’m young and I had the opportunity to be an observer before being an actor. I myself normalized what Messi was doing, what Cristiano Ronaldo was doing, what the great players were doing. We are in a consumer society, where everything is ‘this is good, but do it again,’” he continued.
“And the fact that I’m here next door, in Paris… I think playing for PSG doesn’t help much because it’s a divisive team, a divisive club. So, of course it attracts gossip and it doesn’t bother me because I know what I’m doing and how I’m doing it.”
Performance in the Champions League must be charged to managers, according to Mbappe
Mbappé also said that PSG had reached a “glass ceiling” when commenting on the team’s performance in the Champions League. The question, for him, has to be answered by “who assembles the team”. According to him, the players, including himself, “gave their all” and “did everything they could”.
PSG were eliminated in the Champions League round of 16 in the last two seasons, falling to Real Madrid, who would end up champions, in 2021/22, and to Bayern Munich, in the 2022/23 season. In the latter, he lost both games, in an aggregate score of 3 to 0 for the Bavarians, which generated even more criticism of the team’s ability.
Backstage war between Mbappé and PSG board
Mbappé informed PSG in June that he would not activate his contract renewal clause until 2025. With that, his contract only runs until 2024. He expressed interest in leaving the club at the end of the bond. This, however, infuriated the club, which reacted by expressing dissatisfaction and accusing the player of causing problems. The club’s stance also did not please Mbappé, who accused PSG of trying to damage his image.
This week, history gained a new chapter in the presentation of Luis Enrique, the club’s new coach. President Nasser Al-Khelaifi said he would not let the player leave for free and that if he wanted to stay at PSG, he would have to renew his contract. More than that: he gave an ultimatum for the player to decide what he is going to do.
Publicly, Mbappé says he wants to stay at PSG, but also that he doesn’t want to renew. That is, he wants to leave the club free of charge at the end of his contract. The club, however, does not want to do this and has a confrontational posture, unlike the last time this happened.
Mbappé, renewal, Real Madrid: 2021 repeated soap opera
In the 2021/22 season, Real Madrid tried to sign Mbappé, offering more than €200 million for the Frenchman. As he was in the final year of his contract, it was assumed that the French club would consider a sale. Did not happen. He refused to sell and bet that he would be able to renew.
In May 2022, already at the end of the season, PSG pompously announced Mbappé’s renewal until 2025, posing with a shirt with the date. Only it was misleading: later it was revealed that the renewal, in fact, was until 2024 and there was a clause that allowed Mbappé, exclusively, to decide to renew until 2025, if he wanted to. The communication he made official to PSG in June said that he would not exercise this clause.
This time, PSG is not betting on renewal and has a tough stance with the player. If he doesn’t renew, he will be sold. But it is not possible to force the player to be sold if he does not want to. Everything seems like a theater and an endless and boring soap opera. It’s clear that Mbappé wants to leave and PSG seem to want to force him out now, so he doesn’t leave the club for free.
It is a dispute that will have new chapters in the coming weeks. And most likely, Real Madrid will be involved. Especially because it seems to be the only club capable of taking the player. That is, of course, at the moment. As this soap opera drags on, new characters may appear. Especially if Manchester United ends up sold to a Qatari, who are in the running to buy the club.
2023-07-08 19:38:00
#Mbappé #throws #fuel #PSG #fire #teammates #complain #president
