Will leave, won't leave? While the club wants to keep him on condition that he extends his contract or sell him this summer, the player says he wants to stay until 2024, date of the end of his current contract, making PSG fear the departure of the gifted striker, bought 180 million euros in 2017, without receiving any compensation.

Present at the resumption of training of the champions of France at the beginning of the week, Mbappé also participated in the first friendly match of PSG Luis Enrique, arrived in the off-season to replace Christophe Galtier, even scoring a goal to consolidate the victory of the Parisians against Le Havre on Friday (2-0).

A simple respite, before a new jolt. A few hours later, the list published by PSG for the trip to Japan (July 24-August 2), where the club will face Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr, included recruits, such as Korean Kang-in Lee and Lucas Hernandez, little-used players (Kurzawa), or the other star striker Neymar.

And only one Mbappe: Ethan, the little brother, aged 16. But not Kylian.

The club has given no explanation for the absence of the captain of the France team (70 caps, 40 goals), but difficult not to see a new round in the communication war that the two parties have been waging for several weeks on the terms of a possible transfer.

"He cannot leave for free," President Nasser Al-Khelaïfi said in an interview with several media including AFP in early July, referring to the player's "verbal agreement" that he would not leave free.

PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Kylian Mbappé formalizing the extension of his star striker, on May 23, 2022 at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris © FRANCK FIFE, FRANCK FIFE / AFP/Archives

Speaking of a "non-negotiable" case, Al-Khelaïfi even gave an ultimatum of "maximum two weeks" to Mbappé to make his decision: sign a new contract, or leave this summer. A date that corresponds approximately with the departure of the players for Japan.

A soap opera that poisons the season

In addition to the departure of one of the best players in the world, PSG, who has already lost the Argentine Lionel Messi in June, left for Miami after two mixed years, would indeed cross the 100 to 200 million that could bring the transfer of the striker of the Blues.

Top scorer in the history of the club (212 goals in 260 games, ahead of Edinson Cavani's 200), Mbappé had signed a new contract in May 2022, when he was already free to leave. But since then, the increasingly lively exchanges between the two camps, have poisoned the last season and the summer preparation of PSG.

For several months, the club and the N.7 multiply the pikes and pressure shots, Mbappé complaining in particular of his place of "pivot" at PSG, also leaking by his entourage, his dissatisfaction on recruitment, before denying it in front of journalists.

The - new - elimination of PSG in the 1/8th finals of the Champions League against Bayern Munich also displeased the 2018 world champion, who had then declared: "our maximum, that's it".

In April, he lashed out on Instagram against the club's communication, which was too exclusively focused on his person for his taste, rather than talking about it discreetly internally. "PSG is a big family but it is especially not the Kylian Saint-Germain," he wrote.

Kylian Mbappé at PSG's training center at Camp des Loges on May 5, 2023 © FRANCK FIFE / AFP/Archives

Last June, the crisis became more serious: by mail, "Kyk's" warned the club that it did not intend to activate the option for an additional year of contract, until 2025.

Also by letter, the club responded on July 3 by evoking "enormous damages" if Mbappé left free in June 2024, without any transfer fee, and wanting to avoid "a paralysis of the club".

With its non-selection in the group for Japan, PSG seems to want to carry out its threat of ultimatum. No guarantee that this is the last round of a long poker game.

© 2023 AFP