Kylian Mbappe left Paris Saint-Germain as the club's all-time top goalscorer, but his last season was a bitter one, and it is all the club's fault, writes Junaid Benjamin.
The Frenchman has admitted that he was "unhappy" after the way he was treated at the beginning of the 2023/24 campaign, after he told the French club he would extend his deal for another year. It was reported PSG did not want to lose him on a free and instead wanted to profit off of his departure, which is perhaps understandable. What is inexcusable, however, is the way they allegedly treated him for his decision.
Read: Ahly star 'punished' after Pitso praise
What did Mbappe say?
"I wasn't unhappy at PSG, that would be to spit in the soup. [But] some things and some people made me unhappy," the former AS Monaco star explained, per The Guardian. "They [PSG] made me understand that I wouldn't play, they told me to my face, they told me violently. [Manager] Luis Enrique and [sporting director] Luís Campos saved me. I wouldn't have set foot on the pitch again without them."
Reading what the France international had to say, it seems as though the club's hierarchy tried to paint him as being in the wrong for opting not to extend his stay at the club. Following the confirmation of his move to Real Madrid, the player shared pictures of himself, as a teenager, wearing the Spanish team's attire and posing for a picture with Cristiano Ronaldo, suggesting that he idolised the Portuguese superstar and that playing at the Santiago Bernabeu has always been a dream of his.
He has long been flirting with a move to the Spanish giants, but it had not materialised until now. Perhaps he finally felt he was ready to take on the responsibility of putting on that iconic white jersey, and did not want anything that could potentially jeopardise the move to happen. Perhaps he felt that if he did sign an extension, Los Blancos would no longer be interested in getting him to the club because of a potential high fee the French side could request.
The point is that there are always better ways to handle a situation, and the PSG hierarchy trying to freeze him out of the first-team setup is extremely disrespectful to a player who was still under contract and performing well. Let's not forget, he also ended up being left out of the side's pre-season tour to Japan and was excluded from the squad for their opening league encounter.
When the 25-year-old came back, however, the Frenchman made an instant impact and went on to score a stunning 44 goals in 48 appearances for Les Parisiens, and he managed to put up those numbers while, as he has admitted, he was an unhappy player. His goals helped his side win two domestic cups, reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, and win the Ligue 1 title. He then departed the club with no special ceremony being held in his honour.
The latest reports suggest that the player did not receive his salary for April and May. While the club is also said to have not paid him the loyalty bonus they had promised him, believed to be €80 million (about R1.6 billion), it has been suggested that he has decided to forego that reward. These reports paint the attacker in a positive light, while it does the opposite for PSG's image. If more details of a similar nature emerge in the near future, this may hinder their chances of attracting the world's best players, further damaging club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi's dream of one day winning the UEFA Champions League.
Read: Nigeria coach 'resigns' ahead of Bafana clash
For Real, meanwhile, clubs in Spain and Europe's elites will have to be wary of an attack that consists of a happy Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo, Jude Bellingham and the highly-rated Endrick. For the France international, this new chapter may open an entirely new portal to success.
Disclaimer: SNL24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on SNL24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of SNL24.