how does a professional football contract work?

While the Women’s World Cup is being played on the other side of the globe, football fans are watching the PSG-Mbappé match just as attentively. The 24-year-old striker has until the deadline of midnight Monday July 31 to indicate whether he wishes to extend his contract until 2025, the term of which is set for the summer of 2024.

The contract of a professional player

The contracts of professional players are governed by the International Sports Federation of Football (Fifa). These customary CDDs, often pointed to for their large sums – Neymar’s salary would amount to 2.39 million euros per month – cannot normally be terminated before their deadlines.

The transfer of a player

However, professional football players can be bought out by another club even if their contract is still valid with their current club. This repurchase, a “transfer contract”, is carried out between the club of which the player is employed (the transferor club), the player and the future club which wishes to buy it (the acquiring club).

The latter must pay transfer compensation to the transferring club, in return for the early termination of the employment contract between the player and the previous club. This transfer compensation allows the transferor club to replenish the coffers.

The acquiring club must also pay, in certain cases, a transfer bonus to the player for signing the new employment contract. When the transfer operation is carried out, it must be validated by FIFA by approving the acts concluded by the parties.

In the case of the case with Mbappé, PSG fears that they will not be able to benefit from transfer compensation if the striker leaves at the end of his contract, since Kylian Mbappé would become a “free agent” when it expires. », that is to say an available athlete who can sign contracts with any team.

But the 24-year-old, the third highest paid player in the world, is worth a lot in the football market. Letting him go when he is no longer under contract risks letting out at the same time, a big transfer operation check for the Parisian club. For example, the purchase by PSG of Neymar in 2017 brought 222 million euros to the Barcelona club, a record.

Excessive sums for transfers

This is why PSG announced that the player was already for sale, to hope for an ongoing transfer of the player’s contract (by summer 2024).

Proposals have arrived on the desk of President Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, in particular the pharaonic one from the Saudi club Al-Hilal (700 million euros, including 300 for the transfer), as well as offers with exchanges of players from the share of European clubs. The names of Chelsea or Barcelona were mentioned in particular. The British press also evokes Liverpool.

But the Parisian star is looking further south, interested in Real Madrid. PSG say they are sure that Mbappé has already “a pre-agreement” with Real to join Madrid in a year. With a signing bonus for him but nothing for his current employer.