Bondy and Paris get used to the idea of ​​saying goodbye to Mbappé

“Love your dreams, and they will love you back”, says the message that Nike dedicated to Mbappé on December 12, 2019, on the occasion of the 21st birthday of the French striker, by then already a PSG star and world champion with France. A huge piece of urban art completely covering one of the side facades of an eleven-storey building in Bondy, the commune more than 20 kilometers from the center of Paris where Kylian was born; in the gigantic painting, a child Mbappé sleeps resting his head on a soccer ball and from his mind sprouts as in a dream the figure that he is today, with the PSG shirt.

That same building had already housed two more details of the American brand for the attacker, one commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1998 World Cup, the year France won its first tournament and Kylian was born, and another spurring the children of Bondy, a neighborhood with a troubled history, to reach where the striker has arrived: “Bondy, the town of possibilities”. But something has broken between Mbappé and those who were his neighbors: on January 10, someone wrote “Mbappé, you’re dead” on the mural.

The menace has been covered with a white cloth and the art piece still looks stunning on rue du Potager, but it is clear that in both Paris and Bondy they are getting used to the idea that the PSG player Mbappé’s days are numbered. Specifically, until June 30, the date on which he expires his contract as a footballer for the Parc des Princes club. Last summer, the player tried to force the transfer of him, Madrid fulfilled their part of the deal (started asking for 160 million, ended up going up to 200), but PSG was adamant. Since then, Mbappé has had to listen to whistles and criticism from his fans, to which he responded with understanding: “I would have whistled myself too.”

AS went to Bondy to measure the temperature of Kylian’s hometown, to find out how his own see that he will surely leave his city’s team to sign for Real Madrid. The first attempt was to contact his origins, which are at AS Bondy, where Mbappé played between 2004 and 2013, before leaving for Monaco to begin his meteoric rise. However, from the small club of the Parisian commune they did not give any facility: AS’s proposal to contact the club’s leaders, with the intention of remembering Mbappé’s first steps and also reflecting how he continues to help AS Bondy, was rejected . The Mbappé family, in close contact with the club, currently prefers silence around his son, even if it is for a retrospective on his beginnings, which at the same time have propelled AS Bondy.

On the playing fields of Bondy, the first-year youth of what was once Mbappé’s team come out on the morning of Sunday the 13th. They play against FC Les Lilas and immediately the camera of the AS photographer captures their attention. They are asked to line up as professionals would at the start of each match, but just before the coach intervenes, irritated, following the line that the club had previously shown to AS. He finally agrees to the pose and, while the players pose, he comments: “From AS, right? Mbappé is going to stay. I know Madrid want me to go there, but Mbappé will stay, for sure.” And he adds: “And what about Benzema? Does he play?”

Before the start of the match, Jean-Marc and his son occupy a field goal; the father attends and the little one scores, waiting for the duel to start. Jean-Marc is a PSG fan, he is also a season ticket holder and attends all the games of Pochettino’s team; he will also do it this Tuesday, for which he is confident about the possibilities of his club to eliminate Madrid and go through the round. He doesn’t have as much faith in a joint future between PSG and Mbappé; when he is asked if he will go to Madrid in July, he thinks about it for a moment, he twists his face and expires a resigned “yes”. “He’s fantastic, I love watching him attack, he’s the best we’ve got. But he looks like he’s made up his mind.” He also asks about Benzema, if he will be able to jog in the Parc des Princes or not.

In another point of the commune, in front of the AS Bondy headquarters, which offers up to 15 different sports disciplines, neighbors of the neighborhood play a game; PSG uniforms are very common, Mbappé’s shirts would probably be too if it weren’t for the cold, which imposes additional clothing and prevents seeing numbers and names. There, Mbappé is given up for the cause of PSG, but with hope. “PSG is a team that continues to grow, he wants to be a legend and he wants to be in the most legendary team. It’s normal. We wish him luck”, comments one of the players in a lapse of the game. And once: “Does Benzema play?” It is clear that not only Mbappé lives in Bondy, where Kylian’s friend and strike partner in the national team also has a huge pull. Soon, if the script outlined by Real Madrid does not change, they will be able to see them together at the Santiago Bernabéu.

A “no” that cost two million

PSG’s refusal to transfer Mbappé last summer was a jug of cold water for Bondy, who had already suffered a similar disappointment when the forward moved from Monaco to PSG in the summer of 2017. Although strictly speaking, the transfer took place in 2018, Mbappé played his first year at PSG on loan, a trick by the Parisian club to avoid Fair Play Financial in the same summer that he had paid 222 million for Neymar. As it was a national transfer in federative terms (the Principality of Monaco is an independent country, but it is attached to the French Football Federation, like PSG), the FIFA solidarity mechanism was not activated and AS Bondy did not see or one cent If he gets to sign for Madrid then, he would have received a good pinch.

And with that pinch he had last summer, when he only had one year left on his contract and Madrid put up to 200 million euros on the table. The most serious and calm proposal was 180 million, 170 fixed and ten for objectives, and if there is an agreement, AS Bondy would have taken 2.1 million euros, adding the training rights (310,000 euros in the case of Mbappé and Bondy) and the FIFA solidarity mechanism, which would have reported to the Parisian commune team 1% of the total amount (1.8 million), 0.25% for each of the four years in which Mbappé was trained there from the year he turned 12 (including the course that starts with 11 years).

The Bondy council felt aggrieved in 2017, as it had the money to renovate the stadium where AS Bondy plays its matches; He ended up doing it on his own, without help from PSG that was requested, but never granted. And it is that those more than two million euros represent twice the annual budget of AS Bondy, which is around one million euros. Last summer, given Mbappé’s refusal to renew with PSGthey did see him close at Bondy, but once again the money slipped through their fingers and, if the striker finally signs with Madrid arriving free, they will not see anything of the signing bonus, since only the mechanism of solidarity for international transfers.