It seemed like a perfect match. The top French footballer has agreed to appear at a club in his hometown. And for a while.
Kylian Mbappé was a star attraction that France's finest team, Paris Saint-Germain, had planned to build for years to come. The Qatar government's arm owner returned to Paris from Monaco in 2017 for around $200 million, a record deal for the teenager, and at the time the second highest fee in football.
Goals were scored, trophies were secured, and Mbappé became one of the world's most famous athletes, forged the bond between the player and the club. Then came the trouble.
Mbappe, now 26 years old, dreamed of her childhood playing for Real Madrid in Spain – football royalty – and his chances ended in 2022. Ultimately, he stayed, but only after the efforts of French President Emmanuel Macron, involving cajoling and Hercules insisting that the club is the richest contract in European football.
But just as things fell into place, they began to unravel. Mbappé left Paris after just two seasons. His move unleashed a bitter and prolonged legal dispute, with Mbappé accusing him of his previous harassment and demanding that he pay 55 million euros (approximately $61 million). Paris Saint-Germain refused to pay with the team's president and Qatari envoy along with global football, Nasser al-Khelaifi, saying that Mbappé had an oral agreement to give the money and leave on good terms.
This disagreement gives us a rare glimpse into the global market for football talent, flocking one of the world's most well-known and influential athletes against a small but powerful and resourceful Persian Gulf country. Qatar has appeared as one of the biggest players in global sports in the past decade, using its investment to raise its profile and host the 2022 World Cup.
At a rare press conference in Paris on Thursday, Mbappé's lawyers said they escalated their case and filed complaints at multiple venues. They asked the court to partially freeze his PSG bank accounts for the money his client believes he owes, and petitioned the French Football Federation to block play in the Elite Champions League.
“The clubs don't go beyond the law, and the law is on the players' side,” said Thomas Clay, one of Mbappé's lawyers.
Paris Saint-Germain dismissed the claim as “the latest parallel universe of fantastical storytelling.”
A stabbing cleft
After becoming a player, Mbappé's determination to stay in Paris proved short-lived, as PSG believed it would build a team. The seduction of Madrid, the power of childhood dreams, proved to be too great to resist.
Within a year of re-signing with PSG, Mbappé refused to exercise the option to stay in the third season, wanting to leave as a free agent. It was a particularly difficult revelation for fans. Because when Mbappé agreed to stay with the team in 2022, he wore a 2025 jersey on his back to indicate the year the options were run. Many meant he had been committed to the team for three years.
Mbappé's departure in 2024 was not only a generational talent, but also the opportunity to recapture the 180 million euros he paid his former team to take him to Paris in 2017.
The team attempted to do business with Mbappé. They asked him to consider two options. Both not only allow him to leave, but also prevent the team from losing so much money.
Under the first, Mbappé signs a contract extension that includes a guaranteed sale involving another club he wants to play (evidently Real Madrid) pays a nine-figure fee. Second, Mbappé promised to give up tens of millions of euros with pay and bonus commitments, reaching 55 million euros and leaving as a free agent on good terms.
The contract was created, but there was no signature. PSG describes the offering of two options as a “gentleman's agreement” between Mbappé and Al-Khelaifi.
The transaction was quickly left to dispute. Mbappé accused PSG of accusing PSG of purporting him, including leaving him at home for a preseason tour. PSG questioned Mbappé's integrity as the letter he ultimately sent to the club was a date in July 2022, just weeks after he declined options for the third season and recommended it to the team.
French football authorities have sought mediation to resolve the conflict. That's not happening.
A permanent battle
In the hotel meeting room on the 10th floor on Thursday, as the Eiffel Tower looms behind them, four lawyers at Mbappé outlined many of the cases they had recently brought in before governing the sport, after waiting for PSG to work for a year.
Mbappé was tired of both inaccurate stories about Saga for his contract, waiting for the money he felt owed, his lawyer said. Mbappé's longtime lawyer, Delphine Verheyden, was easy. Mbappé had a contract, and PSG didn't respect that.
She and other lawyers also explained how club officials put pressure on Mbappé – giving him the bench for the season and threatening to undermine his reputation – in an effort to try and sign an amendment to his contract that would have not only saved the club money in the events that he left.
PSG denounced the press conference, accusing Mbappé of refusing a “friendly solution” and refused to file a lawsuit in the Labour Court. One of Mbappé's lawyers retorted that such cases usually take years to resolve.
Mbappé's lawyer said he is taking on Paris Saint-Germain not just for personal gain but to help lesser-known players who can be in the same situation. His fight said that, without obvious irony, even on behalf of the French people, he and the club will benefit from the taxes he and the club will pay if they settle in his favor.
“If we're afraid of the club's response that the club is full of energy, we'll never make it,” said Clay, an arbitration expert hired by Mbappé. “The club will not be happy, and Qatar will not be happy, and that's certainly true.”
The Saga also highlights how reliance on personal relationships still controls the football industry. According to a document reviewed by The New York Times, Mbappé and his advisors wrote in writing, writing their intent to agree to the amendment. But in the end, none were signed.
Severely hurt by SAGA, PSG decided not to repeat his strategy of building a team around a singular person, no matter how talented or famous he is.
That new attitude – the departure from the system that preceded Mbappe in the early days of Qatar's ownership that began in 2011 seems to provide that well. The club has praised the performance as a total of its parts, and is suited to achieve the owner's dream of winning the Champions League, the biggest award in European football, after comfortably beating British opponents in the two-game quarterfinals on Wednesday night.
You may have to wait for a troublesome encounter with Mbappé in the competition. His new team, Real Madrid, suffered a 3-0 defeat to London-based Arsenal in the first quarterfinal match the previous night, requiring a major comeback when they meet again next week.
