Not injured, not suspended, not struck – and for quite a few people the best soccer player on the planet. Nevertheless, Paris St. Germain will not appear to use Kylian Mbappé at the start of the new season. In any case, the signs are increasing.
As reported by “RMC Sport” on Sunday evening, Mbappé will not be part of the first training group when PSG resumes training in Paris on Monday after completing the trip to Asia. Before leaving for Japan a good two weeks ago, there was a big bang when the club did not put Mbappé on the list of travel convoys. Mbappé had instead stayed in Paris and trained there. His status will not change even after the return of his colleagues around the new coach Luis Enrique – although the club may be threatened with a quake if the fronts harden further.
According to the report, Mbappé will enter the pitch at the Poissy training center at 10 a.m. with the so-called “Lofteurs”, Training Group 2. It consists of players that the club does not consider part of the first team – and has prominent players: in addition to Mbappé, it includes two other world champions in Julian Draxler and Leandro Paredes, and Georginio Wijnaldum, a former Champions League winner.
League start probably without Mbappé
“Training group 1”, the squad of the first team, is not expected until 5 p.m. for training, which will herald the preparations for the league opener against Lorient next Saturday (9 p.m., LIVE! at kicker). Under the given conditions, it is currently considered highly unlikely that Mbappé will appear on the game report sheet. The French press does not expect Mbappé to play for PSG for the away game in Toulouse on Matchday 2 either.
In poker for the services of the 2018 world champion, nothing is still happening: Mbappé wants to sit out his contract, PSG does not want to let him go free of charge in 2024 – and the designated buyer Real Madrid continues to play for time. According to ‘L’Equipe’, the PSG management expect Real will only make an official offer in the final days of the transfer window, which will be too low to accept.
The newspaper itself, on the other hand, wants to know that Real will only start negotiations for a transfer this summer when Mbappé publicly declares his intention to change in order to avoid a situation like 2022, when Mbappé surprisingly decided to stay at PSG decided. Should he express his desire to change this time, the Madrilenians around President Florentino Perez should even be willing to pay up to 200 million euros.
