Kylian Mbappé will not travel with PSG to the preseason in Japan
Kylian Mbappé will not travel with PSG to the pre-season tour that the Ligue 1 champion had scheduled for the beginning of August in Japan, as confirmed by the French club itself, which has not wanted to offer any explanation for his absence.
The name of Mbappé does not appear on the list of 29 footballers called up for the friendlies in Osaka and Tokyo, who had participated in the first training sessions in the sports city of Poissy and who scored a goal this Friday during a friendly against Le Havre.
PSG's decision to leave out its great star comes at a time when both parties seem increasingly distant when it comes to finalizing a renewal. The striker, whose contract expires in 2024, announced in a recent interview that he would not leave the club for free.
However, as the newspaper L'Equipe published on Friday, PSG considers that their player would have already reached an agreement with Real Madrid to leave free at the end of the next course. In this way, Mbappé would not allow the club that has pampered him during the last seven seasons to raise a single euro. According to the aforementioned newspaper, with this disciplinary measure, PSG intends to put pressure on the player and trigger a short-term exit that allows him to enter a considerable sum for his transfer.
Substitute and goal in the 90th minute
Two weeks ago, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of PSG, confirmed that the capital entity cannot “let the best player in the world leave for free”, and stressed that if the footballer wants to stay in Paris he will have to “sign a new contract”.
Luis Enrique, PSG's new coach, is still waiting for events, although this Friday he already left the French star on the bench during a friendly against Le Havre. His list for friendlies also includes the Spaniards Fabián Ruiz, Marco Asensio, Juan Bernat and Carlos Soler.
The tour of Japan includes two games in Osaka (July 25 against Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr and July 28 against Cerezo Osaka) plus another in Tokyo (August 1 against Inter Milan).
– May 28, 2023: Upon receiving the award for the best French player of the season from the National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP), he assured that next year he would be at PSG.
– June 12, 2023: The letter that Mbappé sent to PSG was released to inform him that he was not going to trigger the renewal clause until 2025, so that, in practice, a club could sign him for free in 2024, when his contract would end.
– June 13, 2023: Given the commotion, the player himself went out in public to explain that this decision is not new, since he had already informed the club in July 2022 -shortly after his renewal- that he would not activate the clause to stay until 2025.
– July 5, 2023: During the presentation of the Spanish coach Luis Enrique Martínez, President Nasser Al-Khelaifi surprises locals and strangers by giving his flagship player an ultimatum: renew until 2025 or leave this summer. “We are not going to let the best player in the world walk away for free,” Al-Khelaifi said.
– July 6, 2023: A day later, PSG puts more pressure on Mbappé and sends him a tough letter that includes a deadline of July 31 to resolve the conflict between the two parties.
– July 8, 2023: For many, the 2018 world champion adds fuel to the fire by asserting, in an interview with France Football -the magazine that organizes the Ballon d'Or-, that it is not easy to win this award playing for PSG, a club that he considers generates as much love as hate.
– July 10, 2023: The Brazilian Leonardo, who was sports director of PSG during the 2021 summer soap opera, recommends to his former club, from which he left after friction with Mbappé himself, to sell it as soon as possible to the 2018 world champion. In that interview with L'Équipe, he severely criticizes Mbappé: “I don't think he can lead a team.”
– July 11, 2023: To address the situation, RMC radio reports that PSG has turned to a figure close to the striker, Ziad Hammoud, who also has ties to the Qatari management, to try to mediate in favor of a renewal of his contract.
– July 17, 2023: Smiling with his friend Achraf Hakimi, Mbappé returns to training at the new sports city of Poissy.
– July 18, 2023: The players receive a visit from Al-Khelaifi, who does not speak individually with Mbappé. In his speech to the group, he warns that there will be plenty of PSG who do not want to defend their shield and says that he will take care of the footballers as if they were his own family as long as they are loyal to him.
– July 21, 2023: Mbappé plays the last 25 minutes of the first game of the pre-season against Le Havre and scores the second goal of the victory. A few hours later and against all odds, he is left out of the friendly tour that the club is doing in Japan and South Korea.. His brother Ethan, 16, does travel with Luis Enrique's group.
– July 22, 2023: On its official website, PSG removes the photo of Mbappé from the promotional poster for the tour in Asia.