“What will PSG and Ligue 1 measure themselves against after the departure of a player they make appear bigger than them? »

Kylian Mbappé and his teammates during the Ligue 1 match between Paris Saint-Germain and FC Nantes, at the Beaujoire stadium, in Nantes, on February 17. STEPHANE MAHE / REUTERS

The “League of Talents” will, in all likelihood, lose its main talent, and it is not a question of being ironic about this name which is altogether well-founded: Ligue 1 is indeed this championship where future great football players emerge. This summer, Kylian Mbappé will no longer be a Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) player. Her singularity is to have stayed there for seven seasons, when many hopefuls do not wait to have completed a complete one to respond to the “sirens from abroad”.

Of course, it was in one of the European superclubs that he stayed, where he was able to enjoy his superstar status even if he did not win the Champions League and the Ballon d’Or, at least if he did not won’t win them this season. However, we wonder if the latter is not already over, as the comments give the impression of the end of an era for Ligue 1 and PSG, who are taking the poses of widows and orphans.

If it is a “farewell tour”according to the expression of Parisian, which the striker started in Nantes on Saturday evening – we naively thought that it was a championship match –, it will seem very long. And, at the current rate, in June there will be no French person who has not been asked their feelings regarding this exile.

The immaturity of PSG and French football

When PSG already announces the organization of a sumptuous farewell ceremony, we shudder to remember the circus to which Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s last appearance at the Parc des Princes gave rise, in May 2016. The match against Nantes was interrupted in the 10th minute to let the public give him a standing ovation, then in the 90th when his two sons entered the field to accompany his final outing.

Eight years later, it is difficult not to see in the current outbursts a symptom of the persistence of the immaturity of Paris Saint-Germain and French football. At least the club, after exhausting “soap operas” about its attacker, after so many episodes of false break-ups, will assume a dignified separation.

He had to admit that he lost his standoff with the player, and renounce the amount of the transfer – between 160 and 180 million euros according to estimates – that he would have received if Kylian Mbappé had validated the option of an additional year, until 2025, which appeared in his contract.

Last summer, the managers threatened him with a white season and lamented the supposed “wave of layoffs” that his free departure would have caused. If the shortfall is real, the acquisition of the player in 2017 for 180 million euros is largely amortized, and they will save his remuneration, estimated at 200 million euros gross annually.

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2024-02-19 17:00:11
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