Is he “enfant” born in Paris, the world champion on whom PSG wants to cement its project, the indispensable piece of the trident with Leo Messi and Neymar. The Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaifi has remained firm and has won a new pulse to the greats of Europe: Kylian Mbappé will not go to Real Madrid and will continue in Paris.
The president of Paris Saint-Germain resisted pressure, from the merengue club itself and from Mbappe, and discarded the different offers made by Florentino Pérez: up to 200 million euros for a player whose contract ends in just 10 months.
“We will never sell it”Qatari Al-Khelaifi said bluntly in June, when the Real Madrid offensive was rumored. Mbappé, 22 years old, still did not renew with PSG.
Al-Khelaifi, a close friend of the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, had not let any of his stars out when they were in their splendor. Marco Verratti in 2017 or Neymar in 2019, both eager to go to Barcelona, took a resounding slam of the door.
The great figures who have left PSG under Qatari control in the last decade have done so with the tacit agreement of the club. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, David Luiz or Edinson Cavani. All of them in their thirties after having given the best of their careers.
Mbappe, at 22 years old, he could not leave in his splendor, even more so considering that in less than a year and a half there are World Cup in Qatar. And PSG, the best ambassador of this small and rich Persian Gulf country, could not be diminished in its power.
Eager to win the Champions League, Al-Khelaifi has spent more than 1.4 billion euros since a Qatari sovereign fund bought the club in 2011. Among them, 222 million to sign Neymar to Barcelona and 180 million for Mbappé himself, from Monaco.
The leader also attracted legends at the end of the contract by offering hefty salaries: Sergio Ramos and Leo Messi, captains of Real Madrid and Barcelona, respectively, landed in the Parque de los Príncipes this busy summer.
AN “ENFANT OF PARIS”
The lost of Mbappe it would have been a hard blow both sportingly and symbolically. At 22, the 2018 world champion is one of the few Parisians in the first squad.
In a club with 66% foreign players, having Mbappé, a boy born in Bondy, on the working-class periphery of Paris, is a way of creating an identification with the local fan, the one who goes to the stadium every week.
“He’s a boy from Paris”, Al-Khelaifi repeats, each time he spoke of the forward’s strategic importance.
It has not been an easy task to retain him. In 2021 he tightened the rope. While Neymar renewed until 2025, Mbappé said not to be in a hurry. At the end of the season, on Canal + microphones, he said he was looking for a club with a “solid project.”
“I want to have the feeling that the team I play for can do great things,” he launched. In his four seasons in Paris, he did not win the Champions League, although he was close in the final that PSG lost to Bayern Munich in 2020.
Al-Khelaifi reacted to the message by assembling a dream team, with the signings of Messi, Ramos, Achraf, Donnarumma and Wijnaldum, with which he reinforced the team in all its lines.
“Mbappé has no excuse not to stay now,” challenged the Qatari leader the day he presented Messi.
In August, they offered him a contract until 2026 in exchange for 25 million euros clean, the third best salary, only behind Messi and Neymar. I do not accept it.
In the first league match on August 14, Mbappe was whistled by the PSG ultras. The attitude of the player, who was particularly slow to welcome Messi, made the fans uncomfortable.
On Friday the 27th the French media saw him more outside than inside Paris. Two days before, the sports director, the Brazilian Leonardo, admitted the possibility of letting his flagship player go.
While PSG asked for more money, Mbappe he was unfazed. It was still shining on the field. Three goals and two assists in the four Parisian league victories.
The last one, this Sunday, August 29 in Reims, in Messi’s debut. He scored two goals, which he celebrated, and eclipsed the Argentine star, with whom he coincided on the field for just 25 minutes.
It was clear that Mbappe He wasn’t going to boycott his club. Real Madrid will have to wait for more favorable times.
Meanwhile, the upper echelons of Qatar rubbed their hands. A relative of the Emir very active in the networks, Khalifah Bin Hamad Al Thani, anticipated that PSG will try to renew with Mbappé at least until 2025.