France take on Greece with Mbappé's future the subplot to Euro 2024 qualifiers
Really? Is nothing sacred? The imbroglio that oozes from the pores of the Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain seeped into the hemisphere of the France national squad as the players prepared for the Euro 2024 qualifiers against Gibraltar and Greece.
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Kylian Mbappé, PSG striker extraordinaire as well as France skipper, upstaged the prelude to the games with the frenzied speculation about his future.
Seemingly, much ado about nothing.
On Monday, it emerged that Mbappé had sent a letter to the PSG bigwigs stating that he wanted to leave after the 2023/24 season – the end of his two-year deal – and not activate the contract option of a third year until the summer of 2025.
PSG sources immediately raised the prospect of selling Mbappé this summer in order to bring in some cash rather than losing him next year with no money coming into their coffers – the opposite tactic to the one PSG adopted during contract negotiations between Mbappé and club in 2021 and throughout the early part of 2022.
The stance was meant to show PSG management’s new toughness: players are powerful but we are the potentates.
“I didn’t think a letter killed anyone or that I had offended anyone,” said Mbappé during a press conference allegedly to talk about the state of the France squad before the match against Gibraltar.
Stance
All rather theatrical. Saying he is happy to leave as a free agent after fulfilling his contractual duties will vindicate his behaviour technically but for those PSG fans operating on a visceral level, it will be a very prickly thorn.
Lionel Messi won the Ballon d’Or – the most prestigious individual prize for a player – seven times and yet was jeered and booed at the Parc des Princes for supposed indifference to the PSG cause.
The Argentine was sold to them in the summer of 2021 as the missing link in the club’s quest for Champions League glory.
In Messi’s first year with Neymar, Angel Di Maria and Mbappé, European club football’s most coveted honour failed to materialise.
And in his second year – with Di Maria jettisoned and more midfield muscle injected – there was more misery.
And the drab last-16 exit to Bayern Munich coming after Messi’s salient brilliance for Argentina during the World Cup.
Departure
Unsurprisingly, Messi has departed the ingrates to parade his 35-year-old frame for a tidy sum in the United States for the Major League Soccer franchise Inter Miami.
Mbappé, though, is far from such a god’s twilight. The 24-year-old’s constant return of goals for PSG before and after the World Cup in Qatar has saved him from such forensic interrogation.
“I’ve said that my objective is to stay at PSG, that’s my only option at the moment. I’m ready to come back when pre-season resumes.”
Professional to a fault.
Mbappe, who scored France's second goal in the 3-0 win over Gibraltar on Friday night will lead France out on Monday evening at the Stade de France for the Euro 2024 qualifier against Greece.
Following victories over Netherlands, Ireland and Gibraltar, France are in rude health at the top of Group B with nine points.
PSG supporters in the crowd might try to vent their spleen over Mbappé’s position.
But what does a Lens fan in the capital for the night’s international care? Or even a Lyon supporter? Good riddance. Mbappé has been a scourge to defences such as theirs in Ligue 1.
Concern
On a balmy Monday night on the northern fringes of Paris, theirs will be a purely patriotic preoccupation.
Greece lie in second place in the pool with two wins from their two games and Mbappé’s lot for fans operating without the PSG blinkers will be for the striker to continue his prowess for France before everyone can bask in the summer sunshine and return refreshed to resume tribal hatreds from mid August.
Mbappé has – following Friday night's penalty conversion – struck 39 times for France since making his debut against Luxembourg in March 2017 during a qualifier for the 2018 World Cup.
France teammates Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud have scored 43 and 54 respectively. And few doubt that Mbappé will surpass the tallies of those thirtysomethings during a career that has taken him into the political consciousness.
During an earlier bout of wanderlust in 2021, the French president Emmanuel Macron telephoned Mbappé and urged him to remain in France to display his dazzle.
And during the week, Macron was again called upon to persuade Mbappé to stay in France.
On Wednesday, as he strode around the VivaTech trade fair in Paris, Macron was accosted by a youngster kitted out in a PSG shirt and asked if he had the lowdown on the Mbappé dossier.
Macron said he would try to push for Mbappé to stay in Paris.
Catnip.
Macron’s political rival, Marine Le Pen, stuck her boot in. "Don't you think that the French have enough difficulties today for the president to devote all his energy to them, rather than meddling in what is none of his business?", she told French broadcaster franceinfo.
"It's not for Kylian Mbappé that he's doing this, it's not for football fans and fans of Kylian Mbappé, it's for himself," she added.
"Emmanuel Macron's problem is the image that his mirror, every night, reflects back of himself."
That a footballer should provoke such exchanges.
But Kylian Mbappé Lottin is no ordinary player. Raised in the north-eastern Parisian suburb of Bondy, a bright but unruly schoolboy exploded into wondrousness with a ball at his feet for the team AS Bondy – coached by his father Wilfred.
He gained a place at French footballing hothouse in Clairefonataine to the south-west of Paris and from there opted to join Monaco.
Rise
After a couple of years amid the glitz and glamour of the riviera set and a first Ligue 1 title, he went to the Sturm und Drang of PSG in 2017.
Six years later, there have been 12 more trophies with PSG including five Ligue 1 crowns. He has been designated the best player in the top flight by his peers four times and has claimed the Ligue 1 "Golden Boot" five years on the trot. And he has also surpassed Edison Cavani to become PSG’s leading scorer.
Whoosh. But to the froth of the PSG bosses, Mbappé, Messi and Neymar have failed to deliver the Champions League – the title they crave from their massive investment.
There have been stellar performances from Mbappé at two World Cups. A goal in the 2018 final against Croatia which France won and a hat trick in the 2022 showdown against Argentina – which France lost.
If he were to be sold in the summer of 2023, he would command an enormous sum but where would he go? Madrid seems most likely given their previous dalliances and Mbappé’s childhood dream to play for the Spaniards.
Otherwise the cash flows in the English Premier League. Champions Manchester City already boast Erling Haaland. Liverpool? Chelsea? Arsenal?
Rethink
“If PSG were to lose Messi, Mbappé and Neymar in the same summer, that could be exactly what PSG need,” said football writer Jonathan Wilson on the Guardian Football Weekly podcast last week.
“They could reinvest that money … the Parisian banlieue is a hotbed for footballing talent. They could invest in that and became an Ajax or a Celtic of the late 1960s. They could develop their own talent but they’ve gone down this superstar road and it’s won them nothing.”
France, at least, aren’t in that position. During Mbappé’s time in the team, they have lifted the World Cup and the Nations League. They will be among the favourites for next year’s European championships.
"Kylian is Kylian. He's always in the spotlight, a bit more so recently, but that doesn't have any impact on him and none at all on the group,” said France coach Didier Deschamps, who appointed Mbappé captain after the international retirement of Hugo Lloris.
The goal against Gibraltar was par for the course. More stringent tests await; internationally against Greece and domestically with the PSG fanbase.
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