Kylian Lottin Mbappe has netted another late winner. By declaring he is staying at Paris Saint Germain in the 2023/24 season but will not renew his contract thereafter, the club’s record scorer has killed three birds with one stone. Firstly, he has dampened the disquiet among fans that were accusing him of being an ingrate for unilaterally declaring his impending departure without informing the club hierarchy. This has given PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi and new manager Luis Enrique sufficient time to search for a replacement.
He may not admit it publicly but France’s 2018 World Cup winner has decided he will never have a proper crack at winning the game’s biggest individual accolade, the Ballon D’Or, unless he’s featuring for a team that reaches the later rounds of the Uefa Champions League on a regular basis. Qatar 2022’s top scorer is clearly rankled that in six years at the Parc des Princes, PSG have only featured in one final – the 2020 edition which they lost to Bayern Munich.
Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami less than a season after Cristiano Ronaldo swapped Manchester United for Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr has convinced Mbappe that the two great men have passed on the baton for world’s best player to the next generation of stars. The PSG striker’s father and agent, Wilfred Mbappe, and mum Fayza Lamari, who have been ever present in his rise into a global superstar have decided a move to Real Madrid is the next natural step of progression in the six time Ligue One top scorer’s career.
In any other year, Erling Braut Haaland’s treble of English Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League success would almost certainly have ended with him inheriting the Ballon D’Or from Karim Benzema. Messi’s World Cup heroics dictate he will win the crown for a record extending eighth time. All this is not lost on the first man to score a World Cup final hat-trick since England’s Geoff Hurst achieved the feat in 1966. Mbappe knows Haaland is his generational rival and he has stolen the march on him.
Besides, Mbappe is keenly aware Haaland may be more clinical in front of goal but he is the better footballer. His advisors will be quick to remind him that this won’t matter when the careers of the two players are put on a weighing scale a decade down the road. The son of Cameroonian and Algerian immigrants to France is about the enter the most productive age of his career. He doesn’t want to waste it chasing nondescript silverware. It is time to live with the big boys and the place to do that will be the Santiago Bernabeu.
