People linked to the Qatari owners of Paris Saint-Germain informed Kylian Mbappé in February that they are considering whether to approve his transfer to Manchester United provided that he and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad’s English club agree al-Thani would be taken over. President of the Islamic Bank of Qatar (BIQ). According to sources at the Paris club, the French striker hasn’t made any commitments, but said he found the idea interesting. On Monday, Mbappé – who is ending his contract with PSG in June 2024 – informed the club by letter that he was not interested in extending his relationship until 2025, as stated in the wording of the extension agreement signed a year ago.
Mbappé’s letter to PSG coincided with Monday’s publication that Sheikh Jassim had reached an agreement to buy United. Qatari newspaper Al-Watan, owned by Sheikh Jassim’s family, reported that the sale was virtually complete after a Qatari delegation reached an agreement with representatives of the six Glazer brothers, American owners of the English club. The reaction of the exchange was immediate. United’s New York-listed shares posted a strong double-digit gain early Tuesday morning premarket.
“All the news points to Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jassim’s success in taking over Manchester United and the deal will be announced very soon,” said Fahad al-Emadi, director of Al-Watan.
Awaiting BIQ’s official purchase of United, newspaper L’Equipe reported on Monday that PSG had decided to sell Mbappé this summer should the player opt not to extend the contract until 2025. So far, Real Madrid has been the club that had shown the greatest interest in taking on the footballer’s services should the latter leave Paris. However, the forward preferred not to accept the Spanish club’s offer last year, for affective reasons: Paris is his city and PSG his lifelong club.
Sources consulted at PSG warn that the Parisian club intends to sell the player to United. People close to PSG President Nasser al-Khelaifi point out that the Qatari agents involved in the United purchase are proposing a win-win situation for Mbappé: he will join the richest team in the Premier League, the strongest league in the world, play world. and will give PSG at least 200 million as a transfer, a circumstance that compensates the club of origin. Should Mbappé let his current contract expire in 2024, PSG would not receive any financial benefit in return for losing their star. This Tuesday, in a statement to the AFP news agency, Mbappé has filed charges against the Parisian club, assuring that he warned the French club back in the summer that he would not renew his contract in 2024. The player confirms that the email sent on Monday to PSG “was intended solely to confirm what has already been clarified previously.”
Formally, the Qataris state that both PSG and United belong to different owners. While United would fall into the hands of BIQ, PSG is owned by the Qatari state’s sovereign wealth fund. Now UEFA has to come out to confirm this situation. To avoid conflicts of interest, Article 5.01 of the UEFA competition regulations prohibits a club from having the same owner or being under the direct or indirect control of the same person, otherwise one of the two clubs will be banned from the European tournaments. Those with knowledge of what is happening at PSG say that UEFA has informed them that it will allow both United and PSG to play in the Champions League next year.
The start of the formal sale process for United was announced on November 22, when the Glazer family announced that the club’s board would begin “exploring alternatives” to transferring ownership of the club. On Wednesday, Sheikh Jassim handed the American owners his latest offer, 6,000 million euros for full control of United, an amount that surpassed the last offer made by Jim Rattclife, owner of chemical group Ineos.
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