After signing his extension with P.S.G. in 2022, Mbappé said in an interview in New York that his decision to stay with the club was partly out of a desire not to leave the club as a free agent, thus depriving it of a nine-figure transfer fee. “I think even if I was a great player, and I wrote the history in the past in the league, and with the national team, it was not the best way to leave,” he said. Now he and the club find themselves in exactly the same situation.
Under his current deal, Mbappé had until July 31 to inform the club whether or not he would sign up to automatically extend his contract on terms that the club believes is the richest in European soccer. In the months before sending his letter this week, Mbappé’s family and his lawyer had been in discussions with the club about a new multiyear agreement.
His apparent desire to move could mean a reprise of the same soap opera that gripped France last year, when even France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, was enlisted to persuade Mbappé to remain in France as it prepared to defend the World Cup title it won in 2018.
For P.S.G. the biggest impediment to winning over Mbappé again is not a financial one, but a sporting one. The team, which despite its routine domestic success, seems to be locked in a perennial crisis behind the scenes: It is already facing a rebuild on and off the field, including the hiring of a new coach for the second straight summer.
Messi’s departure — he has expressed a desire to join Inter Miami in the United States — was predicted, and the club is open to selling Neymar as it retools. Losing Mbappé, too, under the circumstances, could plunge a team long known for its stars into a worrying period of uncertainty.
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