Kylian Mbappe has told Paris Saint-Germain he will leave the club at the end of this season when his contract expires, sources close to the situation have confirmed.
The terms of Mbappe’s exit are yet to be fully agreed and an official announcement is expected once the situation is finalised in the next few months.
Mbappe’s salary at PSG costs them €200million ($215m ,£171m) per year and the club say they remain focussed on continuing their transition away from their ‘Galacticos’ era, with other big names such as Lionel Messi, Neymar, Sergio Ramos and Marco Verratti among those to leave in the last 12 months.
The Athletic reported earlier this month that Mbappe was leaning towards joining Real Madrid upon the expiration of his PSG contract but influential members of the 24-year-old’s entourage have been left unconvinced by the Spanish club’s offer, which has been delaying the process.
As The Athletic previously reported, Mbappe has known since early January the conditions Madrid are willing to offer him. With the Frenchman’s PSG contract set to expire after June 30, they have been free to discuss terms as he is into the final six months of his deal.
Mbappe signed a new two-year contract in the summer of 2021 that included a 12-month extension clause for the 2024-25 season. However, only he could trigger that extension, not PSG.
In July of last year, PSG sent Mbappe a three-page letter accusing him of unsettling the club, giving him a deadline of July 31 to make a decision about his future. PSG’s letter accused Mbappe of causing “enormous harm” to the club following the “leaking” of his own letter, sent to the club on June 23, which was then “aggravated” by him publicly announcing that he intends to leave as a free agent this coming summer.
PSG received a €300m offer for Mbappe from Al Hilal and the Saudi Pro League club were given permission to talk to the forward, before he was eventually “reinstated” into the first team.
Madrid president Florentino Perez, meanwhile, has been in direct contact with Mbappe and has been the main driving force behind the La Liga side’s latest move for a player who turned them down two years ago, despite at one point them feeling sure the forward had agreed to move.
Mbappe joined PSG from Monaco in the summer of 2017 for a fee of €180m. He has scored 243 goals in 290 appearances in all competitions during six and a half years at the club, making him the club’s all-time top scorer.
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Real Madrid seem the most logical destination for Kylian Mbappe, and PSG think so too.
However, the Spanish club has yet to reach a complete agreement with the player. And at the Parc des Princes, they have heard that there is another club moving in the shadows.
Madrid have always been there for Mbappe. Since May 2022, almost the day after Mbappe turned them down in order to extend his stay at PSG, the idea of a new offensive to sign him has been given great importance.
Contact between the parties has never stopped, and Madrid were informed in the summer of 2022 that the player was not happy with the project PSG were building, and that he regretted renewing his contract.
In January 2023, when all the Spanish press was ruling it out, The Athletic reported that they were still in contact and that the Santiago Bernabeu club would be keeping an eye to try to sign him if the correct circumstances arose.
There were almost no chances for that year, as turned out to be the case, despite the dramatic events of that summer.
But by mid-December, it was decided that there would be meetings in early January to study the situation again in depth. Madrid then decided to make a new move, to the displeasure of several important voices in the club.
Club president Perez — and this is unusual for him — has always been in contact with Mbappe.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has regularly been in contact with Mbappe (Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images)
The feedback from Mbappe to Perez has always been positive, so the president gave the order to go ahead. The player was then informed of the terms that could be reached, lower than the offer he was presented with in 2022 due to the new economic and sporting context at the club.
Also, to avoid a repeat of what happened in 2022, Madrid wanted to solve the soap opera by mid-January. The player’s entourage disagreed with this deadline, explaining that they needed more time.
It seems we are all in for a little more waiting yet.
Because, as The Athletic reported this week, the terms of their offer are yet to convince Mbappe’s camp, despite the earlier positive indications from the player himself over the idea of signing for Madrid.
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What Mbappe’s departure means for PSG
Analysis by Peter Rutzler, PSG correspondent
The impact of his departure cannot be overstated. This is PSG’s greatest-ever goalscorer, both in Europe and domestically. He is the France captain, and the most prolific and consistent goalscorer the French league has seen since Jean Pierre Papin for Marseille in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His exit will be a major blow for PSG, but also for his country. For supporters, in Paris, this will have been anticipated but no less easy to stomach. He is a national hero, and their star player, born on the outskirts of the city.
The club have stressed privately in recent weeks that they have been prepared for Mbappe’s decision, whatever he chose to do, both in a sporting sense and financially. The soap opera of last summer, which saw Mbappe left behind from the club’s pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea as well as excluded from first-team training, was resolved after a financial commitment was made by Mbappe.
Neymar and Messi left PSG last summer (David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images)
The departures of Neymar and Verratti, in addition to Messi and Ramos, provided more financial wiggle room should he have opted to depart on a free transfer and that now comes to the fore. Shifting his €200m salary also opens the door for recruitment, and the club are now looking at “multiple” options ahead of next summer.
The club have already undergone major changes in personnel. More than €300m of talent has been added to the books, with 13 new faces signed last summer in addition to head coach Luis Enrique. January also saw two more youngsters sign, Lucas Beraldo and Gabriel Moscardo, and the average age of the team has dropped dramatically. The emphasis now is about casting aside their ‘superstar’ era with a younger more cohesive team, built on sustainability.
PSG will look now to their new crop of young talent, led by homegrown star Warren Zaire-Emery, 17, who is expected to sign a long-term contract. But losing a player of Mbappe’s calibre will leave a huge mark, both and off the field. It may have been well forecast for some time, but that does not lessen the impact upon departure.
(Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
