Paris Saint-Germain to embrace new loves after Mbappé's long kiss goodnight
There's a scene in the film Life of Brian where the firebrand at a clandestine meeting of revolutionaries attempts to foment anti-Roman hatred.
Issued on:
But after his fellow revolutionaries offer up a plethora of the bounties from the imperialists, the subdued subversive adds: "Well, apart from the sanitation, medicines, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
The vignette might furnish disgruntled Paris Saint-Germain supporters with a modicum of comfort as they digest the news that their star forward Kylian Mbappé will leave at the end of the season.
The 25-year-old has not revealed his next destination but it is widely assumed that he will be kitted out in the all-white strip of Real Madrid for the next campaign.
Not a shock really. Madrid and Mbappé have been an affair in plain sight. Madrid has been panting heavily and widening its eyes for the past couple of seasons while Mbappé has been in Paris racking up the goals and piling up the silverware for his trophy cabinet.
Since he joined PSG in August 2017, Mbappé has won five Ligue 1 titles, three Coupe de France crowns, three French Super Cups as well as the now defunct Coupe de la Ligue on two occasions.
On 4 March 2023, Mbappé overtook Edinson Cavani in the standings as PSG's all-time top scorer with his 201st goal.
It came in his 247th game for the side. "It is a historic moment for the club and for Kylian too of course," said PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi.
"It is an incredible performance which highlights his consistency and his fantastic efficiency."
There have been 42 more strikes since to take the tally up to 243 in 290 games.
Surpassing Cavani's exploits came less than a year after it appeared that Mbappé was set to leave for Madrid.
Decision
During the entire 2021/22 season, the rumours swirled and Mbappé did nothing to quash them.
But before the final home game of the season, al-Khelaifi strode out onto the turf with a prize: Mbappé would remain at PSG.
"I'm going to stay in my hometown and do what I like doing ... playing football and winning more trophies," said Mbappé who promptly went on to score a hat trick against Metz before he and his teammates collected the 2022 Ligue 1 title.
It was a significant moment for the big money backers of PSG. It showed that they had the financial clout to match a Madrid offer as well as the lustre.
For the 2022/23 season, Christophe Galtier was drafted in from Nice to replace Mauriccio Pochettino and oversee a tougher line with the crop of stars that included Lionel Messi and Neymar.
"It's a privilege to have this world-class team at PSG," said Galtier.
"The first thing is to exchange, but also to impose, there will be no compromise on what must be the strength of the group.
Vision
"We must have a common project, without any compromise. From the moment a player is not in the project, he will be sidelined."
Galtier has gone along with Messi and Neymar.
With 13 games remaining of the 2023/24 Ligue 1 season, PSG are 11 points clear of second-placed Nice and well set to win the title for the ninth time in the 13 years since QSI started its backing of PSG.
In that time, the executives have preferred to bring in well known names to add instant heft to the PSG project.
Primacy has come domestically but in the Champions League – European club football's most prestigious competition – it has been a vale of tears.
Of the seven head coaches operating in the QSI times, only Thomas Tuchel has led the team to the Champions League final.
In August 2020 at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, they lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich. The gruesome irony? The winner was scored by Kingsley Coman who came up through the PSG academy.
"Paris is one of the great hotbeds of football talent," said Jonathan Wilson, editor-in-chief of the British football magazine The Blizzard.
"If you look across Europe at the minute, the two places where young talent emerges are the suburbs of Paris and around south London.
"And yet how many are there from those suburbs in the PSG squad? They're just not exploiting the local market that they should have access to."
To be fair to the new PSG boss Luis Enrique, he has thrust local boy Warren Zaïre-Emery, to the fore during the current campaign.
And in the hours after Mbappé signalled his intention to depart, the PSG marketing machine was in full swing to highlight the future around the 17-year-old.
Well-sourced football writer Fabrizio Romano said on social media that the club was likely to secure the services of Zaïre-Emery, beyond the initial deal of 2025.
🔴🔵🔐 One of the first steps of PSG new era will be new contract for Warren Zaïre-Emery.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 16, 2024
The verbal agreement is already 100% reached with the player and his agent Jorge Mendes, it's just about final review of the contract and then it will be signed.
Zaire-Emery will extend. pic.twitter.com/dTFTXL5br6
Mbappé's 17-year-old brother, Ethan, who made his PSG debut on his older sibling's 25th birthday in December, is likely to be part of the environment as well as Senny Mayulu another 17-year-old who has also shone in his appearances with the first team.
On Friday, as his squad prepared for the Ligue 1 game at Nantes, Enrique refused to comment on Mbappé's situation.
"When the interested parties talk about it then I will say something," said the 53-year-old Spaniard.
"I am trying to make the team better and that's what I will continue to do.
"As I said when I arrived last summer, the team is more important than any one player or any one individual."
Inevitably, a power struggle will take place among the PSG executives who want the squad to boast glossy star names such as the Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah or Rafael Leão from AC Milan and those who want a more organically grown group to which fans can relate.
Mbappé was the nexus: very good and from just down the road. Bondy, the town where he grew up, lies some 20 km north-east of the Parc des Princes.
"If you are based in Paris and you are the biggest team in France by a million miles, then you should be able to have the pick of the talent in the area around you," said Wilson.
"You probably want two or three players coming in from the academy to be first team players.
"I don't think it should be a question of doing away with big stars," Wilson added. "It is having big stars who are committed to the collective."
Over the past two years, Mbappé's prevarication has seemed self-serving. His departure would end a soap opera and terminate the tizzies.
Last July, Mbappé was not allowed to train with the first team squad nor go on a tour of Japan because PSG bosses wanted him to extend his contract until 2025 or accept to be sold immediately.
By the middle of August, Mbappé was back with the first team.
His announcement in February 2024 replicates his stance of July 2023.
It is understood neither PSG nor Real Madrid will make an official announcement until their 2024 Champions League campaigns are concluded.
For PSG that has – to the chagrin of their fans – been in the last-16 of late.
But following a 2-0 first leg victory on 14 February over Real Sociedad courtesy of goals from Mbappé and Bradley Barcola, they might progress to the latter stages where they could meet Madrid.
Ultimately, a Champions League final in which the boy from Bondy scores the winning goal would at least provide an instant response to the query: "What has Kylian Mbappéever done for us?"
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