The conflict between Kylian Mbappé and PSG is coming to a more than tense conclusion this week, with the risk of a high-profile trial on the horizon…
Kylian Mbappéwho is claiming 55 million euros in unpaid debts from PSG, will he get his money? The question is more than crucial as the Champions League begins, with Mbappé having played in the white colours of Real Madrid for this new European campaign. The LFP legal committee, contacted by the former star striker of the Parisian club, met last Wednesday, in the presence of both parties. After recommending mediation, it was met with the player’s refusal, and finally asked PSG to pay the 55 million requested, and this “within eight days”, AFP indicated at the time, citing “several concordant sources”.
But the “eight” expires this week, in the middle of the resumption of the Champions League! And the long-distance duel between Mbappé and Real Madrid, who on one side will face the dangerous German team Stuttgart this Tuesday and Paris Saint-Germain, who host Genova tomorrow, will be closely watched. With one question: has PSG finally agreed to pay Mbappé his 55 million, as the club seems to be forced to do, or does Nasser al-Khelaïfi prefer to engage in a resounding showdown?
In a statement last week, PSG indicated that “given the limits of the legal scope of the (LFP – Editor’s note) commission to make a complete decision on this matter”, the case should “be contested before another jurisdiction”. In other words, if Kylian Mbappé really wants his money, he should go and claim it in court! “PSG will be happy to present all the facts in the coming months and year”, the statement even added. “We are not paying”, a source close to the management added to AFP, confirming that it is up to the player to take the matter to court – and not the LFP, nor even UEFA or FIFA, who would not force the capital club to give in either.
Enough to envisage a long-running legal battle… While the biggest European competition is returning with a new formula, it is therefore the announcement of a trial between Kylian Mbappé and his former club that could be announced if the player had actually decided to take his request to court. Enough to cause a new earthquake in French but also European football.
What is the dispute between Mbappé and PSG?
The dispute stems from the conflict between PSG and Kylian Mbappé in August 2023. At the time, the striker was sidelined from the team for wanting to see out his commitment to Paris, while refusing to extend his contract which was due to expire in the summer of 2024. An extension which would have guaranteed the club to receive the money from a transfer at the end of the 2023-24 season.
In the midst of the conflict and probably to calm things down, Kylian Mbappé then committed, according to PSG leaders, to giving up 55 million in various bonuses if he were to leave on a free at the end of the season – which he did by signing with Real Madrid in the middle of the summer. On January 3, the player himself told the press: “With the agreement I made with the president this summer, no matter what my decision is, we managed to protect all parties, to preserve the serenity of the club for the challenges to come, that’s the most important thing.”
But this “serenity” quickly gave way to exchanges of letters from lawyers in recent months, of which AFP has obtained a partial copy. Kylian Mbappé is requesting the payment of a sum of 55 million euros which includes the last third of a signing bonus (36 million euros gross) that the player was supposed to receive in February, the last three months of salary provided for in his contract (April, May, June), as well as an ethics bonus over these three months.
According to the club, this request from the player amounts to not respecting the agreement made in August 2023. But the Mbappé camp considers for its part that this agreement, in a period when the sidelined striker was under pressure, was not signed and that it is therefore null and void. “To avoid its payment obligation, the club is seeking to demonstrate the existence of a hidden agreement that would justify it,” denounces the entourage of the striker and captain of the French team.
PSG, in a letter dated July 1 from its general secretary, Victoriano Melero, speaks of a “gentlemen’s agreement” and a verbal agreement made in front of numerous witnesses. And it believes that Mbappé’s public statement on January 3 adds to its legal value.