Paris Saint-Germain are committed to paying Kylian Mbappe £546million after pulling out all the stops to keep him from joining Real Madrid in the summer.
PSG announced in May that Mbappe had signed a three-year contract extension with the club, which would keep him in Paris until June 2025. It later emerged that Mbappe had in fact put pen to a two-year contract until June 2024, with the third year optional and up to him, not the club.
Mbappe initially looked set to join Real Madrid when his contract expired at the end of June, but PSG lobbied hard to keep him. That commitment was thrown into doubt earlier this month amid explosive reports that the 23-year-old striker regrets signing the contract and again wants to push for an exit.
If Mbappe does agitate for a move then the financial implications for PSG could be huge, following revelations about his contract from Le Parisien. According to the French newspaper, the French giants have committed to paying Mbappe a whopping €630m (£546m) over the next few years.
It is a figure which they claim makes it the biggest contract in football history, ahead of the €555m Barcelona paid Mbappe’s now teammate Lionel Messi between 2017 and 2021. And it is way bigger than the €267m Neymar will earn over six years from 2017 to 2023 at the club.
Mbappe is now responsible for a quarter of the club’s entire budget and he holds all the cards. His basic wage is reported to be €6m (£5.21m) per month, which is reduced to a more modest €2.7m (£2.34m) after tax, but does represent a tripling of his previous agreement.
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There are no performance-related bonuses, such as for helping PSG win the Champions League. But his much-reported signing-on bonus of €180m (£156m) is payable over three instalments due every July – and he will receive all of it, even if he leaves early.
Finally, there is also a loyalty bonus of €70m (£60m) due at the end of every season and it will increase by €10m (£8.68m) for every season he remains at the club.
PSG, however, have strongly denied these reports. A club source told Mirror Football: "Following a sensationalist media story published overnight regarding the Club and one of its players, Paris Saint-Germain confirms the story is completely wrong with not a single detail being correct. The timing of the spurious publication by this media outlet is also surprising, just days before an important Champions League match.
"Paris Saint-Germain will not be dignifying this matter with any further comment. Instead of commenting on rumours and gossip, everyone at the Club is positively focused on the important Champions League game."
PSG were clearly desperate to keep Mbappe on their books in the summer and their efforts even involved French president Emmanuel Macron, who told him that he “has time” so could “stay a little longer”.
Mbappe told the New York Times recently: "I never imagined that I would talk to the president about my future, about the future of my career, so it's crazy, really crazy. He told me: 'I want you to stay. I don't want you to go now. You are very important to the country'. When the president tells you that, that matters.”
PSG are getting a return of sorts on their investment. Mbappe has 14 goals and two assists in 15 games across Ligue 1 and the Champions League so far this season. Christophe Galtier’s side are five points clear at the top of Ligue 1 and sit join top of Group H in the Champions League after four matches.
