Who can put the brakes on Kylian Mbappe? Not many defenders, and perhaps not even the proof that, in his native city, he is cherished and valued at well over €200 million ($226m).
Mbappe will return to work in Paris this weekend from a brief end-of-year break that took him to Dubai and the Globe Soccer Awards. He will be entering the wide open space of the last six months of his contract with Paris Saint-Germain. The club have been pushing him to extend it for the best part of two years. His consistent, but polite, unwillingness to do so means he can, as of January 2022, legitimately negotiate future deals with clubs outside France.
Nobody disguises that Real Madrid have been carefully drawing up a generous and tempting offer to the 23-year-old World Cup-winner. They signalled as much last August, when they tabled bids to PSG to sign Mbappe that rose as high as €200m.
As a statement of Madrid’s intent, it was emphatic. So was PSG’s refusal to let Mbappe go. Madrid had proposed the second highest transfer fee in history for the right to add Mbappe’s speed into their forward line, knowing that potentially he could join a year later for nothing. Out of contract, as he will be in June unless he re-signs at PSG, Mbappe can move for free.
Mbappe has held the dream of playing for Real Madrid since childhood, and an ambition, since he first burst on the scene as a tearaway teenage goalscorer, to test his talent in a league other than France’s. PSG remain determined to persuade him those career targets can wait, until some time in his late 20s or later.
But the stalemate over a new contract remains. In Madrid and Paris, there has been growing concern that the coming weeks, building up to the Champions League last-16 meeting between PSG and Madrid, will be dominated and clouded by a tug-of-war over Mbappe. As the player told CNN, while in Dubai: “In the most important part [of] the season we play Real Madrid,” Mbappe said. “So, the only thing I have in my mind is to beat Real Madrid in February and March. I'm ready to play and give everything for PSG.”
Mbappe deflected questions about his medium-term future beyond this season, confirming only that he will not be moving anywhere in January.
PSG believe there are factors that can still coax him to commit to a new deal there. They argue his prospects of winning major prizes, be they individual ones such as a Ballon D’Or, or club ones, like the Champions League, are best served staying. PSG have never won a European Cup but reached the final in 2020 and last season’s semi-final. Yet Madrid are the competition’s most successful club historically and in the last decade, with their four triumphs since 2014.
There may be a change of head at PSG before next season, too, which hardly suggests stability. But if Mauricio Pochettino - who is about to mark a year in charge but is understood to have a yearning to work again in the Premier League where he thrived at Tottenham Hotspur - were to leave, ex-Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane would be among the favourites to come in. Zidane and Mbappe are mutual admirers.
And then there’s the Messi factor. Mbappe speaks of his sense of awe at Lionel Messi’s having joined PSG, suddenly and unexpectedly, last August.
“It's hard to believe,” said Mbappe. “He played all his life in Barcelona. To see him every day, to play with him, it's a big dream, an honour. I learn every day. I hope we will win so many titles this season and be recognised as the best team in the world. We have to work, but with Lionel Messi it’s easier.”
Mbappe acknowledged Messi needed some time to adapt to a new league and a new club, but is encouraged by signs they are finding the same wavelength as attacking partners. In the last Ligue 1 match they played together before the mid-season break, a 2-0 against Monaco, a measured Messi lay-off set up Mbappe’s ninth goal of the league campaign. It was Messi’s first direct assist for Mbappe, who has scored 15 times across competitions since August and set up another 17 goals, including five for Messi.
In the last nine months, Mbappe has also welcomed another new partnership, in the France national team, with Karim Benzema, following Benzema’s recall after a long absence from Les Bleus. It has flourished. There is every reason to believe it would do at club level. And Benzema is Real Madrid’s captain.
