At the Parc des Princes,
As usual, he didn’t let anything show. But even if it’s difficult to put yourself in the guy’s shoes, it’s hard to imagine Kylian Mbappé not having let himself get caught up in the moment at the final whistle of the meeting between PSG and Toulouse last night. At least a little. The Parisian superstar played for the last time in his garden, a real event as he marked the history of the club for seven seasons.
A 256th goal for the road…
The Parisian defeat (1-3) is anecdotal and still bears its accounting mark. Obviously. Kyky de Bondy did not hang around to open the scoring (8th) and bring his record to 256 goals with Paris. We won’t thank the assistant referee at the time, who interrupted the joy of number 7 and the public by raising his flag for offside, ultimately contradicted by the VAR. Mbappé could then celebrate with a smile, before heading towards the bench to throw himself into the arms of Keylor Navas, also on the start.
For the rest, a rather strange feeling emerged from this evening, as if the public did not really know how to go about celebrating their champion. Since the announcement of his departure on Friday, discussions around how to celebrate him, or not, spoke volumes about the ambiguous link between the star and the supporters. Adored for what he represents, his goals, his weight in the team and the titles won, he has also irritated many people with his behavior. Ostensibly sulky as soon as things did not go his way, for some he never embodied the role of standard-bearer that he demanded and obtained.
Nothing organized, the Park said goodbye in its own way
Responsibilities are not only assumed by scoring goals. There is the rest too, the way of supporting your team, of coming together when things are rocky, of overcoming your little worries for the common good. Mbappé is not that type of player. Should we blame him for that? Everyone has the right to place the cursor where they want between the player and the man, between the performances and the attitude, between the words and the feelings. Even if he never stopped proclaiming his love of the club, his pride in playing here, in his city, his country, he will not have succeeded in dispelling the most skeptical. “It was me, with my qualities and my faults, but I tried to give the best version of myself,” he said in his farewell video.
President Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, deliberately skipped in the thanks of the one to whom he gave everything, refrained from raising the sauce, putting nothing in place for the start of the beginning of a tribute. As they had suggested through the club’s communication on social networks since Friday, the leaders focused on the festivities for the 12th championship title.
The Park therefore said goodbye to Mbappé in its own way, first freshly, with a nice bronca during the first announcement of the team composition 45 minutes before kick-off, then with a little more ardor, like the giant tifo deployed by the CUP. Nothing at the end of the match, however, and the player didn’t do anything to trigger anything either. The place was taken by the emblematic speaker Michel Montana, who was also the last after 26 years of holding the microphone to set the mood at the Park.
Mbappé still has three matches to finalize his exit. His last meeting in Parisian colors, against OL on May 25, will be a moment in history for French football this time. We must not forget that the Kyks will have stayed seven years in Paris, whereas it could have, even before its arrival in 2017, gone to earn its pawns and trophies abroad. Whatever we think, we are not about to see a player of this caliber on our lawns every weekend before a lease.