Mbappe’s exit a big blow to PSG’S master plan
• The future looks much brighter for Kylian Mbappe than it does for Paris Saint-germain.
With Mbappe leaving PSG at the end of the season, following former star teammates Neymar and Lionel Messi out the door, the Qatari-owned club’s project to dominate European soccer has taken another severe blow.
For while Mbappe will have Europe’s biggest clubs chasing him — Real Madrid seems in the pole position — PSG faces uncertainty.
The cash-rich club’s next steps will be heavily scrutinized.
Who will replace the 25-year-old Mbappe? How will PSG cope without Mbappe given that his goals have helped paper over so many cracks? How does coach Luis Enrique prepare for the rest of this season and the next?
An exasperated Enrique tried his best not to answer at his pre-match news conference Friday, on the eve of his team’s French league game at Nantes. He delivered one-line responses such as “I won’t comment until the parties concerned have commented” and “No player is bigger than the club.”
When a reporter tried one last time in Spanish, he told her: “I don’t have any information to give you on this subject.”
Mbappe’s exit is also not good news for the French league as it negotiates the next set of TV rights with broadcasters up until 2029.
Mbappe’s departure will close the chapter on a local boy who ended up at his hometown club and helped repair its battered image.
Mbappe was 12 years old, playing for his local club AS Bondy in the Paris suburbs, when Qatari owners QSI bought PSG in June 2011. The club was reeling from years of soccer violence, resulting in the death of two PSG fans in the streets around Parc des Princes stadium, and results on the field were poor with no league title won since 1994.
After QSI’S arrival, the stadium’s hostile atmosphere gave way to cushioned seats and major celebrities like Jay-z, Michael Jordan and Beyoncé. Nine more league titles followed, giving PSG a national record of 11.
Mbappe joined in 2017 along with Neymar for a combined 402 million euros (US$433 million). They helped PSG become the biggest club in France.
What QSI truly craved was a Champions League trophy. But neither a raft of big-name players nor a carousel of coaching changes has delivered it. The club’s motto “Dream Bigger” was splashed on the team bus but PSG reached only one final, losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich in the pandemic-shortened 2020 edition.