According to the Guardian (UK), striker Kylian Mbappe needs to leave PSG and try in a more competitive environment, to go from good to excellent.
With trembling hands, the man pulled his phone out of his pocket. The screen flickered and then a voice said: “Ping”. A news message pops up. His fingers trembled as he touched the text on the phone. Squinting a little, he saw: “Mbappe,” the headline appeared, “threatened to leave PSG”.
At least, there are things that remain unchanged.
The author of the article on the Guardian opens with a fictional passage, to satirize that every summer Mbappe asks to leave PSG, and the French team tries everything to keep it.
Two years ago, PSG had to spend a huge amount of money, like a new deal, to renew with Mbappe. At that time, what did they think when the striker entered the final year of his contract? Would a player like himself who constantly speak out about his desire to move to Real Madrid walk into President Nasser Al Khelaifi’s room and happily sign an extension? “Relax, Mr. Nass. I really want to stay so much that I’m willing to play free football for PSG”, would he say that?
Lionel Messi is gone , and Neymar is also packing his bags and flirting with rich teams like Al Hilal or Chelsea. Mbappe is the last star left, but possesses unmatched power at the Parc des Princes.
A senior figure at PSG recently said that dealing with Neymar is the easiest of the three stars mentioned above. And Mbappe is more difficult.
Looking at the “oil” teams in Europe, you can see the contrast between Man City and PSG. Man City has just won the treble, and won the Premier League three times in a row. Their U23 and U18 youth teams did the same thing. If it’s a real club, PSG has used abundant money to invest in developing the seemingly endless source of talent in Paris and its suburbs, to become the symbol of the city. Instead, they splurged money to create a jar of honey, containing the stars. But the same team that had two players score five goals in a World Cup final was knocked out in the last 16 of the Champions League after just a few months.
Mbappe’s talent is undeniable, when he broke the records of the biggest tournament on the planet like the World Cup, at the age of 25. Mbappe can’t be blamed for all PSG failures, because he scored for they have 148 goals in Ligue 1 over the past six years. But he certainly needs bigger challenges instead of an opponent like Ajaccio. It took all of the players on this team nine weeks to earn the money Mbappe made in seven days.
Mbappe needs to leave PSG, because he is not perfect. During the World Cup, he scored a hat-trick, of which the second was a difficult volley in the most stressful situation possible. But from the quarterfinals to the 80th minute in the final, he did almost nothing. Coach Didier Deschamps had to put Mbappe in the middle because he refused to support the defense on the left wing. In seven World Cup games, he did not tackle or cut the ball once. Messi did not need to defend at all for Argentina, but still four successful tackles.
Mbappe ‘s power at PSG and France makes him lazy to defend from a distance, and that can affect the whole team. The last time Barca won the Champions League was in 2015, when Messi was at his peak. When the Argentine superstar walked more, and his teammates behind him were no longer able to run in his place, Barca began to decline. Mbappe is only 25 years old, but already wants to let go of his defensive obligations.
At Real Madrid, Mbappe has to move and defend more. Otherwise, they won’t need you. On the left wing, Real also owns a rising star like Vinicius Junior, not too far behind Mbappe. The French striker can be brought in to replace Karim Benzema in the central striker position, but he always tends to drift left to receive the ball. Is he ready to change the way he plays, or does coach Carlo Ancelotti have to find a way to cram Mbappe into a squad that has no shortage of fast attacking players?
President Florentino Perez seems to be looking to build a third-generation “Galaxy”, starting with midfielder Jude Bellingham. If PSG do not agree to sell Mbappe in the summer of 2023, they can lose him after a year. This scenario happened in the summer of 2021, but then PSG broke the safe to keep Mbappe staying. Will they succeed this time, or is this just Mbappe’s unique way to earn another lucrative contract?
At the age of 25, Messi has won four Ballon d’Or, while Mbappe has not even won the Champions League. If world football has entered the apocalypse, Mbappe is the victim. You have talent, but you can still be much better than that.
