To understand some of the reasons behind Kylian Mbappe’s impressive announcement that he will stay at PSG, you only have to consider where he has been over the past week. That was in Qatar at Paris Saint-Germain where he was sold hard. It was obviously convincing. Here’s how the situation went from an “imminent” move to Madrid on Monday to his decision by Mbappe Whatsapp Florentino Perez on Saturday.
That’s the kind of influence a state can exert. Then there is the money that a state can raise.
PSG have insisted their offer for Mbappe was in fact lower than Real Madrid’s and he will be the highest-paid player in the world at ‘just’ €40m a year. The Independent was told by connected sources that it was “almost double that”.
Perez, who has so long rejoiced that Real Madrid can afford more than anyone else, has had a taste of his own medicine. Madrid have just been blown out of the water after having to completely restructure their own payroll to do so. The image of Perez ranting about it like Logan Roy is undeniably funny, and sources say he’s “angry,” not least because of the way he was informed.
Madrid, like Manchester United and so many other great clubs, are genuinely suffering from the inevitable end product of the hyper-capitalist world of football that they were instrumental in creating. It’s Frankenstein’s monster, and it’s now come back to trample on them. They’re not blameless, and there shouldn’t be that much sympathy.
Schadenfreude does not mean that we should be happy about it. This is a milestone for football, and a worrying one. The two second-best players in the world, Mbappe and Erling Haaland, have now committed to sportswashing projects. Some traditional powers tried to attack them but found they just couldn’t get the finances to work. The writing has been on the wall for a long time.
These are not mere market forces in the problematic ways that are common to much of modern football history. It’s even more concerted than that.
Back in 2017 and on the Neymar transfer, The Independent reported that one of PSG’s goals was to raise fees and wages to levels that only a handful of clubs could match. A potential bonus of this would have been that traditional powers would have bankrupted themselves trying to keep up.
That’s exactly what happens. We’re entering a world where only government-backed clubs – and maybe a commercial giant or two like Manchester United – can compete financially.
This is, quite frankly, anti-sport, since the whole idea of sport is the competitive balance and unpredictability that comes with the “one game” principle.
It should be emphasized that this is not an argument for renewed rule by the old forces. It’s because we’re so far removed today from the competitive diversity that football was supposed to be about, which really existed, at least until the 1980s.
It’s also why, despite all the obvious complaints about LaLiga president Javier Tebas’ policies, the sensational statement from the Spanish competition – who described Mbappe’s contract as “scandalous” – had plenty of merit.
(AFP via Getty Images)
This is all the more remarkable given the politics at play here.
One misconception was that La Liga did this because no megastar will join and that it will be tightened on behalf of Madrid. Nothing is further from the truth. La Liga has long sought to bring the big two – Real Madrid and Barcelona – under financial control in order to increase the competitive balance and enforce very strict economic rules. It was a situation that saw the competition lose its all-time greatest star with Lionel Messi and helped create a deep schism between Tebas and the historically unprecedented Madrid-Barcelona pairing.
Tebas may be wrong on many of his personal policies, but he is absolutely right about the idea of competitive balance in European football and that is what primarily drives his reaction. He stuck to that consistently.
You can’t say that about the current Uefa hierarchy. How do you go from deciphering the Super League to a situation seeing this? Many, of course, could point to the new power PSG and Nasser al-Khelaifi gained after this failed plan.
In any case, Uefa’s main task should be to protect the health of the sport. It’s hard to imagine how this would happen in a world completely run by a handful of government projects that are able to spend whatever they want. That doesn’t mean eliminating inequality or “rebalancing the game,” as some arguments put it. It exacerbates this disparity and makes the top end of the sport even narrower. Madrid and La Liga have undergone another reality check, recalling that both are no longer the right place.
Football has never needed more visionary leaders as the vision for the game grows murkier. The top end, the most prestigious tier, is now so visibly a plaything for nation-states with gravely problematic human rights records.
Is that really the point of the sport? Is that what we want from our game?
What Mbappe wants is difficult not to question the decision. If Perez were Garry Cook, he might even accuse Mbappe of ‘bottling it up’ – as the former Manchester City manager did with Kaka. There’s a lingering feeling that the French star remains in a comfortable league and a club situation that’s more than comfortable now given the influence he’s garnering. This, meanwhile, will only add to PSG’s exasperating superiority over the French league. Will many even watch another procession? It’s not really a player who pushes his limits, although the challenge now is to finally deliver that Champions League for PSG.
This quest has remained a source of comedy for the game itself. However, it’s still hard not to believe that this is inevitable. You and City will eventually win it. They simply invest too much money. This is how the modern game really works.