PSG
Kylian Mbappé is listening to PSG contract offers from Qatar
The Frenchman has been linked with a move to Real Madrid but now it seems that he is open to listening to Qatar’s PSG offer.
PSG have restarted their efforts to tie down Kylian Mbappé to a new contract with the club. Last week, Qatar sent emissaries to meet with the player’s entourage and on Sunday, a meeting was held between both sides in order to clarify the situation and reduce the hostility that had built up over the past weeks and months with everything that has happened.
The Qatari directors, although they are not counting their chickens just yet, left the meeting happy and are awaiting a second reunion this week, and Nasser Al Khelaïfi himself may even be present.
The journey by the delegates, who were key in the last contract renewal that Mbappé signed (in which it was presented as a two year deal but turned out to be 1+1), was taken last week with the sole objective of creeping closer to keeping the French forward in the capital and away from prying eyes and deep pockets of other clubs.
Is Mbappé signing a new contract at PSG?
In the first meeting on Sunday, PSG were ‘optimistic’ regarding a contract extension, above all in terms of the predisposition and good manner in which the conversations were had. PSG are confident that they can retain their star player for the 23/24 season and repeat last year’s success with him, when they convinced the forward to sign a new one-year deal.
However, the mere fact that Mbappé's people sat down to listen to Qatar’s offer does, by no means, signify that the French national team captain is set on renewing his deal. It simply shows that there is an effort to resolve a situation that was unsustainable before the player was reintegrated back into the first team structure following his exile during pre-season, in which it was even suggested that the player would watch the season play out from the stands of the Parc de Princes.
PSG ‘don’t understand’ Real Madrid’s behaviour in the saga
Last Saturday, in PSG’s game against Toulouse, Mbappé came on as a second half substitute and scored a vital penalty in the game. After the goal, the player went over to the PSG Ultras to celebrate, showing again that there is no other player like him at the club in terms of talent.
PSG and Qatar are both expecting an offer from Real Madrid to arrive before the end of the market. One of the things spoken about at the meeting by the Qataris was that they ‘do not understand’ why a team that has shown so much interest in the player has not yet lodged a bid for him, risking another year in which PSG could agree a renewal. Their stance is clear: if a bid of €250 million comes in for Mbappé, he will be sold, but anything under that amount will simply be ignored.
What are the public positions of Mbappé and PSG?
PSG adopting this position at this stage of the market is a reaction to them fearing that Mbappé could walk away for free next year, although Nasser Al Khelaïfi’s objective, despite publicly throwing him under the bus, was to keep Mbappé for another year. The player is not going to force an exit after saying publicly that he wanted to stay and fulfil his contract. Qatar, in the meeting, made their position clear that if he wants to leave, he must say so clearly, something which has not yet happened.
PSG have all the means necessary to make Mbappé feel cared for and loved at the club: they can give him everything he wants, be it money or any time of gesture or act. Even if Qatar move fast to tie him down for another year - like last season when everything pointed to him going to Madrid - throughout the tango of negotiations, many things can still happen to change Mbappé's mind.
