Mauro Icardi remains in Paris: the Argentine striker, loaned this season by Inter Milan, signed a 4-year contract going until 2024 with the Parisian club, which announced that it had exercised the option to purchase on Sunday his website.
First transfer to Europe since the start of the crisis
With 20 goals scored in 31 games, Icardi, 27, did everything to push PSG to recruit him definitively. In view of the new economic context, Parisian leaders have succeeded in reducing the amount of the operation "to less" from 60 million euros, against 70 million euros initially, according to the French and Italian sports press. This is the first major transfer to Europe since the crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mauro Icardi is committed to Paris Saint-Germain until June 30, 2024.
Paris Saint-Germain is pleased to announce the exercise of the option to purchase @MauroIcardi. The 27-year-old striker was loaned in 2019-2020 by Inter Milan.
Recruited at the end of August 2019, the Argentinian international made an excellent first part of the season with 14 goals (9 in the French championship and 5 in the Champions League) before marking time after the winter break. His final recruitment could signal the departure of Edinson Cavani, at the end of the contract on June 30. The top scorer in the history of the club, already close to a start last January, would have been able to extend his lease in Paris, but his age (33 years) and his imposing emoluments were a brake for its leaders, according to the sports press.
A necessary reduction in the wage bill
With losses estimated internally at more than 200 million euros after the end of Ligue 1, the necessary reduction of a payroll exceeding 300 million euros is required in high places. Also at the end of the contract on June 30, captain Thiago Silva (35), who enjoys like Cavani an XXL salary, risks not being retained either in the capital, like the lateral Thomas Meunier and Layvin Kurzawa.
Pending a potential resumption of the Champions League in August, the sports director of PSG Leonardo still has other hot issues to settle. Securing the Parisian future of stars Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, renewing a workforce potentially amputated from several historic executives, and obtaining the signing of the first professional contract for the nuggets of the academy like Tanguy Kouassi and Adil Aouchiche (17 years old), highly coveted by four corners of Europe.