Elimination from the Champions League could decide Mbappé’s future: reasons to wear white | Champions League

At the time of the final judgement, the crazy owners of PSG will be able to target everyone except their great star, Kylian Mbappé.

Surely the first head that will fall is that of coach Mauricio Pochettino. They will certainly reconsider whether Lionel Messi is a cost worth sustaining, whether Sergio Ramos in the stands really does any good, whether the goalie fight between Donnarumma and Navas is actually a useful contest or a weapon pointed at the player’s head. project, they will doubt everything and everyone except Mbappé.

Because the ‘young wonder’ scored the goals to put his team ahead, one in Paris and the other in Madrid, and in fact he scored twice more, but the offside ended up frustrating his show. And even so, theirs in the elimination in the round of 16 of the Champions League, the tournament that is PSG’s obsession, was impeccable.

That is why he now has the peace of mind to make the decision of his life: to play or not to play for Real Madrid from the middle of this year, when his contract at PSG expires. And the detail that was missing could easily be found this Wednesday at the Bernabéu stadium.

The first thing was his gesture, which did not go unnoticed, when he went out to warm up before the second leg of the Champions League round of 16: he could not shut his mouth seeing the renewed stage.

But it is a minor detail: the reality, as the French press has published several times, is that he does not see in PSG the project that carries, with years and years of history, Real Madrid. When the Frenchman looks at the white house he sees a Real Madrid Castilla B with a present and a future; when he reviews the squad he observes that the veterans are passing the baton live and direct to the heirs, a Modric with a Valverde starters; when he looks at the LaLiga standings he sees him strong in the lead despite having a lot of competition; when he consults the Champions League he sees them in the quarterfinals, after coming back from two goals that he scored against them.

Meanwhile, PSG, what does it offer you? Millions to bring a Messi who overshadows him, a Neymar who, between several absences, leaves him alone in definitive moments, a coach who seems overwhelmed by the talent of his managers, no renewal plan other than the inexhaustible checkbook of the Qataris and a bad relationship with Leonardo that forces him to discuss the important things with Nasser Al-Khelaifi, which would be ideal if the discussion was only about money. And he hasn’t been for a long time.

Mbappé has very little expectation to win the Ballon d’Or that he thinks he deserves and that, after being world champion, depends only on winning the Champions League. Today he knows that it is Real Madrid that is still alive in his favorite tournament while he goes back to Paris with a suitcase full of frustration. Before this disastrous key he did not want to stay. He now has the reasons that he lacked for the move to Madrid, which would have already advanced a first agreement, to be a reality.