Leading PSG’s project no longer tempts Kylian Mbappé: he wants to leave the club

There was a time in which Kylian Mbappé wanted nothing other than to be the star at PSG, to know he was the sun around which everything revolved and that the rest of the planets focused their attention on him. He didn’t want to follow the rhythm, he wanted to set it.

However, the decisions at PSG over the last few years have gone against that wish from the player, not giving him the importance that he desired, and taking away power and influence, signing two huge names to go alongside and even above Mbappé: you don’t get much bigger than Neymar and Messi.

He has been sharing a club with the Brazilian forward since 2017 when both players arrived: with Neymar touching down on French soil after a €222 million deal was agreed to bring him from Barcelona, Mbappé was brought in from Monaco for a fee of €180 million (after a year on loan).

Mbappé's clear message to PSG: ‘I want more responsibility’

Both the difference in price and the fact Neymar (who could be leaving) came with more experience from a bigger club meant that he took the tag of leader in the project, with Mbappé playing second fiddle. And for a short while, the French forward took on that role perfectly: he had signed for the team in the capital after 6 stellar months at Monaco in which he got to the semi-finals of the Champions League; Neymar was already a European champion.

However, it didn’t take long for Mbappé to feel undervalued. In 2018 he won the World Cup with France and in 2019, after winning the Ligue 1 Player of the Season award, he let loose: “I think it’s the moment to take on more responsibility. I might be happy in Paris, but maybe somewhere else with a new project. That’s the message I want to send.” Well, that message certainly made its way to those who pace up and down the top offices at the Parc de Princes, but it was not acted upon. Neymar still had control.

In fact, the opposite happened. Neymar signed a contract renewal in 2021 and extended his deal until 2027, giving him a salary close to that of Mbappé's current wage. And there’s more: in the same year, Messi was brought in as a free agent after leaving Barcelona and this moved Mbappé into a central role on the pitch, something that he did not enjoy as much as his usual position on the wing.

How was Mbappé's relationship with Neymar and Messi?

The relationship between the three forwards, despite not being bad, was never ideal. with Messi, Mbappé felt nothing other than admiration towards him; as for Neymar, and the fact that his life was not, shall we say, entirely centred around football, Mbappé felt suspicion.

And so we arrive to this summer, where the situation seems to finally be clearer for Mbappé at PSG, whose shirts have already been removed from the club store. Messi is in Miami and Neymar has one foot out of the door, yet the Frenchman is not convinced. He only wants to see out his contract at the club and earn his current wage. He rejected the extension clause and will not sign a new deal with PSG: being the centre of the project in Paris is no longer good enough, and he now has it dangling right in front of him. Leading Real Madrid, however, that’s something different altogether.