Kylian Mbappé has crossed this Monday a very significant border in his relationship with Paris Saint-Germain. By arriving on July 31 still as part of the squad, he earned the right to a loyalty bonus of 80 million euros contemplated in the contract signed last year. The club will not pay him the amount immediately, according to sources familiar with the conditions in force, but the payment will take place next year, regardless of whether Mbappé is still at PSG then or plays for another team.
This milestone in the calendar explains the energy with which Nasser Al-Khelaifi closed the appearance on July 5 in which he introduced Luis Enrique as the club’s new coach: “If he doesn’t renew in two weeks, the door is open.” In reality, it was a somewhat hyperbolic excess, the result of the weak situation in which he saw himself with respect to the player.
A few days before, the letter had been released in which the footballer informed PSG that he would not activate the contract clause that allowed him to extend it until June 2025. In the letter, which had been dated July 15, 2022, and which he kept for almost a year before sending it, Mbappé said that he intended to exhaust his contract in June 2024, which meant that then he would leave for free.
In this scenario, PSG looked for formulas to try to minimize the damage. In the first place, he tried to persuade the footballer’s entourage to renew until 2025 with the commitment to sell it in 2024. So that he would leave something in the club’s box.
The next thing was to leave him out of the team’s tour of Japan and Korea, so that it would be clear in public that they did not have him, to try to stoke interest from other clubs. There were several Europeans who contacted PSG. And Al Hilal also appeared with the biggest offer in history: 300 million to PSG plus a gigantic contract for the footballer. The Parisian club gave authorization to the Saudi team to start talks with Mbappé, but the attacker did not want to know anything.
The summary of all that fireworks set off by Al-Khelaifi was the same as on July 5: with the contract in force, everything was in the hands of Mbappé, no matter how much the club tried to prevent him from reaching July 31, still on the payroll. . That had two consequences contained in the contract. On the one hand, it activated the footballer’s right to collect the 80 million loyalty premium. On the other hand, if, as he has done, he maintained his intention not to renew, he was giving up another part of the agreement: some 60 million renewal premium. That resignation, according to sources close to the negotiations, led PSG to the conviction that Real Madrid had promised him an even higher transfer bonus if he arrived at the Bernabéu for free in the summer of 2024.
While the calendar progresses, the white club is waiting, contemplating the development of events from a distance. The disappointment of last summer, when they thought that Mbappé would arrive for free and he ended up renewing, keeps mistrust alive. They do not want to be used in negotiations again, according to sources close to the high command.
After crossing the border on July 31, PSG sees its position a little weaker. They do not trust that any of the signs of interest in Mbappé from several large European clubs will bear fruit. That interest is not mutual. They are convinced that he has an agreement with Madrid, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Also that the pact breaks FIFA rules, although they lack evidence.
At this point, the next milestone on the calendar that they are looking at is August 12 at 9:00 p.m., when PSG hosts Lorient on the first day of the French league. They point out the effect that the discontent of the fans, or of the most radical part of the fans, could cause before a footballer who believes that he betrays the club with his plan to leave without leaving a transfer.
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