The case has been going on for over a year, and it is about to be resolved. This Tuesday, the Paris industrial tribunal must resolve the long-term dispute between Kylian Mbappé and his former club, Paris Saint-Germain, who are demanding astronomical sums from the opposing party after their tumultuous separation in the summer of 2024.
However, it cannot be ruled out that the case will be postponed to a later hearing by the four industrial tribunal advisors: the two representatives of the employers and the two of the employees could then benefit from the support of a professional judge for this thorny, high-stakes matter. “The matter will not be finished tomorrow” on Tuesday, one of its actors even anticipates privately, also mentioning the possibilities of appealing.
The November 17 hearing confirmed that neither side and their legions of lawyers intended to give up an inch of ground. The capital club requested a total of 440 million euros from their former striker. At the same time, the advice of the captain of the Blues demands 263 million euros from PSG, based in particular on a reclassification of his contract from CDD (fixed-term contract) to CDI (indefinite duration).
PSG’s counterattack
At the center of the debates: the unpaid salaries and bonuses at the end of the contract in the summer of 2024 of the star, now at Real Madrid, for an amount of 55 million euros. It was Kylian Mbappé who, after having sought in vain to obtain them before the sporting authorities, took PSG before the industrial tribunal.
To reach this sum, the Madrid striker’s advice denounces, among other things, dismissal without cause (44.6 million euros), moral harassment and hidden work (twice 37.5 million euros) or even unfair execution of the employment contract (19 million euros). But the capital club, aware that French labor law protects employees, opted for a counter-attack strategy with these 440 million euros claimed.
After attempts at conciliation, it is now a question of protecting the institution in the face of player behavior deemed disloyal, says a person close to the PSG management. The club relies on the established existence, according to it, of a verbal agreement between the two parties in the summer of 2023 so that the player, expected to leave free, does not financially harm his employer “after the exceptional investment made”. The challenge to this “clear and documented agreement has caused considerable harm to PSG”, considers the club in particular.
Lawyer Renaud Semerdjian gave details of the compensation requests: “Twenty million for damage to the image, 60 million for bad faith in the execution of an agreement dated August 2023, 180 million for the concealment of this agreement and 180 million for loss of chance to transfer the player”.
A tumultuous end to the story
On the Mbappé side, it is believed that these amounts have no legal basis and are unlikely to be taken into account by industrial tribunal advisors. We hope that the advisors will focus on the 55 million unpaid debts. “Kylian Mbappé does not make any exceptional requests and only requests the application of labor law, like any employee,” indicate his lawyers.
The dispute poisons relations between the two parties. The striker was sidelined from the professional group at the start of the 2023-2024 season by PSG because he wanted to complete his contract without extending it. A choice which deprived the Parisian club of a juicy transfer fee. Mbappé was finally reinstated after the first day of the championship.
When the leaders were announced in February 2024 of his upcoming departure, the relationship cooled a little further. The departure of the top scorer in the club’s history took place in the spring, without pomp, without any other public event except the organization, by the Utras of the Auteuil stand, of a tribute lasting a few minutes after a match.
