Paris Saint-Germain have yet to pay Kylian Mbappé his bonus plus two months in 2024 wages, sources told ESPN, a factor that contributed to his comments Tuesday about being unhappy with the club.
Tuesday, Mbappé said certain people at PSG made him “unhappy” in his first news conference since completing his move on a free transfer to Real Madrid.
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Wednesday, sources told ESPN that PSG felt he was being “ungrateful” in his comments and added that PSG won’t pay the back pay of €80 million ($86m) in wages and bonus in an effort to recoup the money for his departure, which the sources said Mbappé agreed to with PSG back in August.
Sources said Mbappé is seeking the back pay because PSG sidelined him for the end of the season once he told them he was leaving the club.
He is owed his February bonus plus April and May wages, and it is yet to be seen whether the club will pay him his June wages, sources said.
Sources denied that anyone within the club told Mbappé he would never play again during the season and added that the club had tried to do everything possible to make him and keep him happy for the past seven years.
Speaking at a news conference with the France national team Tuesday, Mbappé said the Parisian club told him that he wouldn’t play at all in the 2023-24 season.
Mbappé had been involved in a row last summer with PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi over whether he would extend his contract beyond the end of the season. He credited the club’s manager Luis Enrique and sporting director Luis Campos with “saving” him.
“[The club] made me understand that I wouldn’t play, they told me to my face, they told me violently,” Mbappé said. “Luis Enrique and Luis Campos saved me. I wouldn’t have set foot on the pitch again without them. Just the fact I was playing was a great source of pride, but it’s certain that next year I won’t be satisfied with a year like that.”
PSG plan to move on with a new project based more on collective strength, sources told ESPN.
Mbappé previously came close to joining Real Madrid in summer 2022 before eventually opting to sign a new deal at the Parc des Princes.
Speaking Tuesday on “ESPN FC Daily,” former Real Madrid midfielder Steve McManaman said he believes history could complicate his start at the Bernabeu.
“I think he has to win over a lot of the fans,” McManaman said. “I think it’s apt he’s joined now when they’ve won their 15th Champions League and sitting at the top of the tree. But yes, the fact that he agreed to join them two years ago then he reneged at the very last minute. He’s joining the team at a really exciting and important moment for the future and for himself.”
He added: “If he wants to be the world superstar renowned as the very best, he’s going to have to go in and be better than Vinícius Júnior, who is going to be Ballon d’Or winner this year. He’s going to have to be better than Jude Bellingham, he’s going to have to score more goals, because Jude you would expect will have to move back into midfield.”
