Kylian Mbappé, who extended Saturday at Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) until 2025 at the end of a long series, promised on Monday May 23 not to encroach on the sporting direction of the club, saying he did not want go “beyond [his] function as a player”.
“I remain a football player, anchored in a collective, I will not go beyond this function, I will not go beyond my function as a player,” the 23-year-old striker said in conference release, alongside club president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.
PSG bluntly dismissed its sporting director, Leonardo, overnight from Saturday to Sunday, a few hours after the announcement of the extension of Mbappé’s contract. The future of coach Mauricio Pochettino is more than uncertain; now, the locker room superstar is no longer called “Leo” (Messi) but rather “Kyky”. Because if Kylian Mbappé chose to reject the advances of Real Madrid, at the risk of alienating a good part of Spain, it is certainly because he made sure that in Paris he would be “the cornerstone of the project”, a formula already admitted by Mr. Al-Khelaïfi. It remains to be seen, now, what this Doha promise really encompasses.
Paris keeps “the best player in the world”
The choice of the player from the capital “is a very strong sign, we are keeping the best player in the world”, savored the leader at the start of the press conference, which aroused as much, if not more, curiosity than the spectacular arrival by Lionel Messi, presented with fanfare in the heart of summer 2021.
“Today is a great day for PSG, for our fans in France and around the world: Kylian is staying at PSG for the next three seasons, it’s important for us and for Ligue 1.” is not the most important thing for Kylian, it’s the athlete, “assured Mr. Al-Khelaïfi. “For the money, other clubs, including yours [Real Madrid], can pay more than us,” continued the Parisian manager in response to a question from a Spanish journalist. However, he refused to specify the terms of Mbappé’s new contract, also coveted by the Madrid club, while fabulous figures are circulating.
