The focus is on Kylian Mbappe, a French striker who has taken firm legal action against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), his former team. His legal team made a big announcement on Thursday: they were going to take 55 million euros out of PSG’s bank accounts. This number reflects the unpaid incentives and salaries that Mbappe feels he is due after leaving for Real Madrid in the summer of 2024.
Mbappe is not hesitating. He is requesting signing and ethical incentives in addition to the final three months of his contractually agreed income. The player’s plea was approved by a Paris court, which made it possible to seize money from the club. Mbappe has also filed a complaint for “public defamation,” pointing to a growing rift between himself and PSG, in conjunction with this move.
Mbappe’s legal strategies don’t end there, either. He intends to take the matter to the labor court, according to his attorneys. He also plans to join the National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) collective complaint against professional teams for what it calls “moral harassment”—a practice that has affected players over the past year, according to the UNFP. During a stressful time of contract discussions with PSG, Mbappe feels like he is being treated unfairly.
The PSG organization responded quickly, using close relationships to reaffirm their stance. The club expressed confidence in the procedures’ result and declared they will attend the labor court without reservation. PSG argues that Mbappe’s appeal is unlikely to succeed and highlights differences in how events and agreements are interpreted.
This financial dispute has already been addressed by the Professional Football League (LFP), which ordered PSG to reimburse Mbappe for the money owing in September and October. Discipline in French football has become complicated as a result of PSG’s refusal to comply and instead choose to contest the LFP’s decisions at the Paris court. In keeping with rulings by the French Football Federation’s (FFF) Appeals Commission in earlier sessions, the LFP’s disciplinary board has thus determined that it is incapable of resolving the issue.
The main point of contention is that Mbappe and PSG allegedly had a verbal agreement. The club asserts that the athlete is not owed the salary and bonuses because of the agreement reached in August 2023. After refusing to extend his contract with PSG for an additional season, Mbappe had been sidelined from the professional group at that point. If Mbappe had chosen to depart in the summer of 2024, this extension would have allowed the club to keep a transfer fee. In the end, he chose to join Real Madrid on a free transfer.
In addition to this complicated legal situation, Mbappe filed a complaint with the French Football Federation (FFF) on Tuesday. According to his attorneys, the purpose of this action is to inform UEFA of PSG’s financial irregularities. The FFF must tell the European regulatory body of this information, which might put PSG’s UEFA license for the next Champions League season in jeopardy and further complicate this already difficult legal and financial dispute.
