Mbappé, three-way

The Mbappé operation has suffered an electroshock in recent days due to the flood of statements from several of its protagonists, in different media and without prior notice to the other parties on some of those occasions. Especially thanks to the interviews that Mbappé has granted in RMC Sport and L'Équipe, in which he explained his frustrated departure to Madrid last summer and left PSG and its sports director, Leonardo in a rather bad place.

The president of Real Madrid, for his part, advanced that he expects a resolution for January 1, at which time the player he will be free to negotiate his future, being in the last six months of his contract, and Leonardo reacted by hitting the white leader (although he was silent in relation to Mbappé, despite the fact that his words had been much more eloquent); then he asked for sanctions for Madrid and defended PSG's business model. There is a before and after of this crossover of statements, the players reaffirm their positions and Madrid continues to feel the best placed to be the new destination of the Paris star. Although the footballer's mother lowered the illusion with her words in 'Le Parisien', commenting on some renovation efforts that no one was counting on.

Mbappé, sincere and somewhat ambiguous

Of everything that has happened in recent days, Mbappé's interviews are by far the most important and revealing. In his statements to 'L'Équipe' and 'RMC' he has been forceful about his wishes to leave last summer and about how PSG blocked that option for no reason: “I asked to leave. From the moment I didn't want to extend, I wanted the club to have a transfer fee, to have a quality replacement. I announced it early enough, late July, maybe sooner. “; “I told Leonardo and Al-Khelaïfi. Thus, there is no one who says they did not know. They told me that the project was done, that they had not imagined it without me and that they do not want to sell me. I respected that. If they don't want me to go, I'll stay, that's fine “; “When I hear Al-Khelaïfi say that it would not come out” neither pierced, nor free “, it's a little scary. I speak honestly. I was in front of my television, I swallowed hard. I said to myself: What is going to happen? … “;” I did not like that they said that I had wanted to go last week, I notified him at the end of July “.

But the reality is that he did not manage to get out and now he lives a complicated reality at PSG, without finishing fitting into the attacking quartet with Neymar, Di María and Messi, and feeling that he is not the center of the project, on the contrary, despite the fact that that was what he had always requested from PSG. “That idiot won't pass it on to me,” Mbappé was caught saying on the PSG bench during the 2-0 win against Montpellier, referring to Neymar.

And to top it all, he is constantly receiving whistles from the PSG fans, especially from the ultra sector, very active, a question on which he wanted to temper bagpipes in his interviews in recent days: “It is understandable. You are in a situation where there are only rumors, to the right, to the left … What do we give them? Articles, gossip, people with nicknames who claimed to have information … I tell you the truth, quite frankly: I would have booed myself too. It's frustration. It doesn't mean they don't like me, because the fans support me. It is also a show of affection. I took it like that, not as something frontal. They criticized me for not speaking. But you can not speak”.

Asked if there is any option to renew with PSG, Mbappé was ambiguous, but As AS has learned, his position of not extending his contract is firm and the words of Al-Khelaïfi, reaffirming that they would not let him leave and that he would not leave for free., are the final push for the player to understand that if he continues at PSG, he will be at the mercy of the Emir of Qatar. He knows that unbearable pressure awaits him this season and that PSG will return with a new offer to make him the best paid in the squad, but his desire continues to be to play for Madrid, as he confirmed in '' L'Équipe ': “If there were left this summer, it would only have been to go to Madrid “.

Of course, the words of his mother, Fayza Lamari, in 'Le Parisien', lowered the illusion among Real Madrid: “We are currently discussing with PSG for a renewal and things are going well. I even spoke to Leonardo last Monday. Will we find a solution? One thing is for sure: he will give everything to the end to win the Champions League. “In Madrid, however, they do not stop worrying about this, and less when it comes to an interview in 'Le Parisien', a medium very close to PSG and that already served as support in the past to calm the waters around the future of Mbappé. In addition, Lamari also left pearls in favor of Madrid: “He dreams of playing for both PSG and Madrid. When Kylian wants something, you can do what you want, but he will do what he wants. You need constant challenges. If Kylian now goes to Madrid, along with three or four other players, that team will not be the same. He wants to be at the center of the sports project. “

Tense calm in Madrid

For his part, Florentino Pérez surprised with his statements during the visit to the El Debate newsroom, in which he set a date for the possible resolution of the soap opera: “In January we will have news from Mbappé. We hope that on January 1 everything can be solved.” Later, before the commotion that was formed, he partially rectified his words in RMC Sport: “My words have been misinterpreted. What I have said is that we have to wait for next year to have news and always with respect to PSG, with whom we have good relations “. In any case, Florentino's words summarize well Madrid's optimism in this matter, in which he clearly sees himself as the winner of the race.

The white club already knows what its role is from now on: to support the footballer as much as possible, who will suffer pressure from PSG and also from the fans of the Parc des Princes, and try to get Mbappé to stamp his signs a new contract to become part of Madrid from July 1. From that moment, everything that Madrid and Mbappé do will be perfectly legal, according to FIFA regulations.

PSG fumes

And while, PSG is stirring, because they see that they are losing the battle and that the actors involved, Mbappé himself and Real Madrid, do not do much to hide it. After Florentino's statements in El Debate, PSG sports director Leonardo spoke with L'Équipe to hit the Madrid coach: “These new words from Florentino Pérez are only a continuation of the lack of respect for PSG and Kylian. In the same week, a Real Madrid player (Karim Benzema), after the coach (Carlo Ancelotti) and now the president of Real Madrid talk about Kylian as if he were already one of them. Florentino Pérez has already spoken about Kylian to the Real Madrid fans during the week. I repeat: it is a lack of respect that cannot be tolerated. The Florentino thing has been going on for two years. I only remember that the transfer market is over, that the season is underway. There are games and Real Madrid cannot continue behaving like this. Make it stop! Kylian is a PSG player and the club understands perfectly that this relationship will last. “

It is in what Leonardo does not say that the importance of his statements lies: he does not blame Mbappé in the least for this, despite the fact that the player gave two interviews leaving PSG for a club that did not respect his wishes and Leonardo himself as a liar. The Brazilian knows he needs to rebuild the relationship with Mbappé, which is very deteriorated right now, if PSG has any hope that he will extend his contract with the French club. PSG has unlimited money (UEFA continues to turn a blind eye) and with a hobby that will put pressure on Mbappé to the maximum, but the pessimism in the Parisian entity is remarkable: it is assumed that on July 1, Mbappé will be white, and not It is ruled out that the contract has already been signed for several months.

Days later, at the Festival dello Sport organized by 'La Gazzetta' in Trento, Leonardo persisted in his criticism of Madrid and called for disciplinary action: “Madrid have been talking about Kylian in public for two years, it is not normal to say that sooner or later he would end up at the club and we also communicate it to them. It is not good to look for a player like that, even less if we talk about one of the best in the world. Things like that should be punished. They deny it, but I think they have been working for two years to sign Mbappé. “