Kylian Mbappé Wins $70M Contract Dispute With Paris Saint-Germain - Page 5

French soccer star Kylian Mbappé has won the battle, but the war is likely to continue. The 26-year-old striker earned an important victory in his ongoing dispute with former club Paris Saint-Germain. He’s now with Real Madrid but his former team argues that he neglected to tell them of his decision to transfer when his PSG contract ended in 2024, which meant they couldn’t collect lucrative transfer fees.

PSG has been ordered to pay Mbappé $70M in unpaid wages and bonuses per ESPN. This covers the months that Mbappé wasn’t being paid in April, May, and June of 2024. His lawyers initially argued that the club owed him more than $305M. PSG countered, saying that they were looking for more than $440M in damages and lost transfer fees due to Mbappé’s exit.

At issue is Mbappé’s decision not to renew his contract with PSG in 2023. It expired in 2024, and the club says that by neglecting to tell them for more than 11 months, he let his existing contract lapse and they received no compensation for him. PSG also says that in 2023, Mbappé agreed to less pay if he went the free transfer route.

“Mbappé scrupulously fulfilled his sporting and contractual obligations for seven years and right up to the final day,” his attorneys said. “He did everything possible to avoid litigation, even going so far as to withdraw a harassment complaint in a spirit of conciliation. In total, he had been seeking payment of his salaries and bonuses for more than 18 months.”

For now, the French courts have ruled in Mbappé’s favor, but the decision could be reversed on appeal. A World Cup winner at 19 with France, Mbappé’s considered to be the closest thing soccer has to LeBron James. He won the Golden Boot this year which honors the sport’s leading scorer, but PSG won the European championship.

In his seven years with PSG, Mbappé scored a club record 256 goals.