He will be absent but it should only be about him: Paris Saint-Germain’s first media meeting in Asia is being held on Sunday (10:00 a.m. French time) in Osaka (Japan) without Kylian Mbappé, dismissed by the French club from his summer tour. The conflict has reached its maximum intensity since PSG announced on Friday evening that it was not taking Mbappé to Japan (July 23-August 2) or South Korea (August 2-3).
In the hall of the Nikko hotel in the great Japanese port, the new coach Luis Enrique and the players present will inevitably be questioned about the major crisis which is shaking the champions of France. The situation is currently totally blocked. The player intends to honor his last year of contract, without extending, to leave free and therefore free in June 2024. PSG is certain that its N.7 already has an agreement with Real Madrid.
A Saudi offer on the table
Paris wants his player to extend or renew his contract, to sell him in a year, at a price probably in the hundreds of millions of euros. A source close to the negotiations assures that there is already an offer of 300 million euros of Saudi Arabia. Mbappé won’t be joining Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema in the Saudi League, but these numbers help measure the player’s value, and also the club’s gigantic shortfall if he leaves free after signing in 2017 for 180 million euros from Monaco.
So far, the player’s camp hasn’t reacted to the sideline or PSG’s version that the player had verbally promised he would extend until 2025 and even posed in a flocked shirt with that date. Less than 24 hours later, the striker traveled to Poissy, Yvelines, to the club’s new training center for a session with the reserves.
The UNFP in support of Mbappé
At the exit, Mbappé, smiling, relaxed, but silent, went to meet a handful of supporters, often very young, who were waiting for him. He signed autographs, shirts and took selfies, before leaving two minutes later.
The captain of the France team also received the support of the players’ union, the UNFP, which took offense at the practice of “loft” popular with French clubs, consisting in excluding certain players from training when they want to get rid of them.
The lofters and Mbappé, “same fight! thunders the union, which wants to “remind managers that exerting pressure on an employee – via the deterioration of his working conditions for example – to force him to leave or accept what the employer wants constitutes moral harassment”. And meanwhile, if the Spanish press ignites, Real Madrid waits patiently, hoping to recover Mbappé cheaply.