Raquel VillaécijaParis Correspondent

Paris Correspondent

Updated Tuesday, February 13, 2024-23:12

Kylian Mbappé

is France's best kept secret. Not even the French president,

Emmanuel Macron

, knows his future

, who already tried and succeeded? keep him when he was about to sign for Madrid two years ago. Today, his departure from Paris Saint Germain (PSG) could cause a national cataclysm just a few months before the Olympic Games. This week the Champions League has returned and Real Sociedad arrived in Paris on Tuesday, where

Luis Enrique

confirmed that Mbappé will play, despite the fact that last Saturday, against Lille, he did not do so due to the discomfort he was experiencing in his ankle.

In any case, the debate in France is not about tonight's match. It's about your medium-term future. The player already said last summer that he would not renew with the French club, but he will not be free until next summer, when the league ends. The president of PSG,

Nasser Al Khelaifi

, was already clear in June: "We do not want Mbappé to leave free in 2024."

Le Parisien

published a few days ago that the agreement with Madrid is close, while other media do not rule out that he renews for PSG. The reality is that the player's fate remains unknown, and France, Paris, is awaiting the future of

Kyky

these days , as the sports media calls him.

To know more

Whispers of sport.

The conditions for the definitive "yes I want" between Mbappé and Florentino

  • Editor: ORFEO SUÁREZ

The conditions for the definitive "yes I want" between Mbappé and Florentino

Mbappé.

'Le Parisien' takes his signing for Real Madrid for granted

  • Editorial: EFE Paris

'Le Parisien' takes his signing for Real Madrid for granted

Some experts and much of the press are clear that he will leave. At 25 years old, he has not yet won any Champions League. He was on the verge of winning the World Cup in Qatar, but

Leo Messi

's Argentina

snatched the title from France. "He has always said that his dream was to play for Real Madrid and he is thirsty for titles: the Champions League and the Ballon d'Or. And he has more opportunities to achieve it with the white team than with PSG," Arnaud Detout,

journalist

, explains by phone.

sports from

Le Parisien

. «He has always been Mbappé's favorite team.

The question is not if he is going to leave, but when

: sooner or later, says Detout, who believes that at 25 years old, he is in the best moment to go to Spain.

The footballer raised in Bondy, on the Parisian outskirts, is not only a PSG superstar. He is an asset for France. Macron's attempts to retain him worked once, when there was speculation that he might leave, but "he cannot force him to stay forever, to be here at the best moment of his career just to serve France," explains the journalist. Mbappé has been playing in the French League for nine years (two in Monaco and seven in PSG), "

he wants to do something different, the time to leave France may be now

." "When you are in the same club for so many years you have the same skills," says the Le Parisien journalist, who sees a problem with the move to Madrid because in the white team "he wouldn't be the only star."

Mbappé, on the bench against Lille.Thibault CamusAP

Vicent Chaudel,

founder of the Business Sport observatory, thinks along the same lines

, believing that his departure could create a locker room management problem at the Bernabéu. «Real Madrid's economic model is to have stars and Ballon d'Ors or future ones, but we don't know if Mbappé will be one. What we do know is that he has potential. He becomes a superstar in the World Cup [whose final he lost to Argentina]. We have already seen at PSG that it has been difficult to manage three stars. "Real Madrid now has two players who can be stars or potential, such as

Vinicius

and

Bellingham

, who can be in the top 10 of the Ballon d'Or."

That being the case, Chaudel believes, "Mbappé would complicate the dressing room, especially if his salary is higher than that of the other two stars." This analyst insists on the problems of his departure to Madrid. "Mbappé at Real Madrid a year ago made sense, and he had advantages for the club, but now it is not so clear," he says. Furthermore, he believes that if he leaves, he is not so dramatic for PSG. «With what he earns, the team can attract new stars and replace him. "Now Mbappé can leave and not change much for the club." If he leaves "

the problem is not for PSG, it is for the league

, because the rights to the championship would be worth much less."

«If PSG does not find a superstar to replace him, there will be a problem for the championship, more than for the club. "That takes a long time of negotiations, so if the club already knows that he is leaving, they should be negotiating another arrival." If he leaves, "

I don't see him anywhere else but at Real Madrid

, because Barça doesn't have money, and I don't see him in an English or Italian club, he has always said that his dream was to play for PSG or the Real Madrid. The issue is knowing when it is important for the white team to have him. When Cristiano was there there was no interest, and later Madrid prioritized finishing the Bernabéu. Now is the time."