Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi says Kylian Mbappe will not be allowed to leave the club on a free transfer next summer.
Al-Khelaifi added that Mbappe has two weeks to decide his future. The 24-year-old has entered the final year of his contract and said last month that he will stay at the French club for another season before making a decision on his future in the summer of 2024.
According to French news outlet Le Parisien, Al-Khelaifi has ruled out the possibility of the France captain leaving PSG on a free transfer next year and said the “door is open” for his departure if he chooses not to sign a new deal.
“We want him to stay but he can’t leave for free. It was our oral agreement and he had expressed it publicly in an interview. So it’s not debatable.
“I was really shocked to learn that he intended to leave for free. It’s very disappointing because Kylian is a fantastic boy, a real gentleman, and leaving for free, weakening the biggest French club, it’s not him. When I received this information, I was shocked and disappointed.
“That’s why he has to decide next week, or at most in two weeks. And if he doesn’t want to sign a new contract, the door is open. It’s like that for him and for everyone else. No one is bigger than the club, no player, not even me. It’s very clear.
“In football standards, you never see your best player leave the club for free. It never happens,” Al-Khelaifi told Le Parisien in a lengthy interview.
Mbappe signed a multi-million two-year deal with PSG last summer amidst heavy links to Real Madrid. It is understood that the Spanish giants are still interested in the French star but Mbappe wants to play out his contract and then move at the end of next season.
It is this plan that PSG bosses don’t agree with, as they seek to recoup some money from their Mbappe investment since he moved from Monaco.
