– Aaah, yes, yes, I received a great offer from Chelsea at the last minute, it is an offer that cannot be refused.

* Ehm, Chelsea? Don't you mean Manchester City?

– Aaah, yes, Manchester City of course! What did you say?!

This was Robinho, telling journalists – in an innovative way that did not occur to anyone – the truth about what happened on the night of the first of September 2008, Real Madrid had decided to get rid of the Brazilian winger after failing to fulfill his promise to switch to the new Ronaldinho, or perhaps after fulfilling this promise too quickly, we are not sure frankly, the important thing is that Chelsea made an offer Ask the saliva of Florentino Perez, and ask Robinho as well according to press reports, because - surprise - he was impressed by the idea of living in London, where Shopping stores and bustling nightlife (1).

This was, of course, before the Abu Dhabi Group made its surprise last-minute entry into the transfer window, announced its purchase of Manchester City, and offered Perez a larger sum to obtain the services of the Brazilian, who in turn immediately agreed, surprising Robinho that his destination had changed, and then throwing him into the mouths of hungry reporters.

This is a completely true story by the way and is not an exaggeration, and you will find it included in the stories of "the strangest transfers in the history of the game" and "the biggest moments of journalistic embarrassment in football" and others, in fact we included it in a similar report 2 years ago.

Surprisingly, this time Mbappe's story begins with a similarly embarrassing moment.

25-24=Robinho

Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe stands holding the Paris Saint-Germain shirt that bears his name, and below it the number "2025" after renewing his contract. (Reuters)

The French striker's story with Real Madrid has roots that may go back to his childhood, but this chapter begins in the summer of 2021, when Real Madrid sent a €160m offer to Paris to acquire Mbappe, a player who had only one season left on his contract (3).

Of course, by the standards of real deals, this means that Mbappe would have become the most expensive player in the history of the game undisputed, even more expensive than Neymar, who spent Paris 220 million euros to obtain his services, because the value of the deal in the transfer market is estimated at the cost of the alternative opportunity, and the cost of the opportunity here is to wait for the player's contract to run out, that is, the club actually does not "contract" the player, but rather "buys the remaining years in his contract" to get his services now, instead of waiting for these years without them.

Money for time, that's the equation, and with this equation Mbappe would have become the most expensive player in history with €160 million for just one season, followed by Eden Hazard from Chelsea to Real Madrid also with €130 million for just one season as well.

The important thing is that – as Robinho ironically said – it was an offer that could not be refused, especially since Paris was threatened to lose Mbappe for nothing permanently after only one season, but the management of the French club rejected the offer and decided to use all its weapons to pressure Mbappe to continue, and it had what it wanted, with a contract that turned Mbappe into the highest paid players in the world, surpassing both Messi and Ronaldo, in a position that no one else occupied for the past decade (4) (5).

Days, hours or weeks later, we don't remember exactly, Mbappe was standing at the Parc des Princes in an elegant black suit, wearing a watch from the brand "Hublot", one of his main partners, carrying the Paris Saint-Germain shirt bearing his name, and below it the number "2025" after renewing his contract, and this was what the club officially announced through social media platforms and press institutions, but, unfortunately, there was no journalist asking the obvious question: "2025؟ Do you mean 2024?"

Sudden entry

(Reuters)

Believe it or not, 30 June 2024 – not 2025 – is the extent of Kylian Mbappe's real contract, and the number carried by the shirt did not reflect the real reality of the deal, because everyone knows that not everyone reads the terms of the actual deal (5).

What the French striker actually signed was a two-season extension, with an additional option to extend for one more season. What was announced – indirectly – was a renewal for three more seasons. All this was not so important, until Kylian sent an official letter to the club, on the evening of June 13, informing them that he did not intend to activate the option of the extra season. This means that Paris, despite being renewed with a record salary and a huge signing bonus, found themselves in the same situation again after only one season (6).

For the Paris management, it was all annoying: first, according to Adam Krafton and Mario Cortejana, journalists of The Athletic, the option of renewal was not automatic, in addition to the fact that the only party capable of activating it was Mbappe himself, meaning that the only case in which the player needed to address the club officially about his contract was if he wanted to activate the renewal, not cancel it, and his mere silence was enough to run things as he wanted and officially terminate the contract on June 30. 2024, but apparently he wanted to make it public to the world (5).

Second, several press reports confirmed the player's communication with Florentino Perez since the rejection of his fantasy offer in 2021 and the signing of the same renewal, and even his apology to the president of the most successful club in history, and the repeated communication between the surroundings of the duo, specifically since the end of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, in preparation for a possible return, which was confirmed by a short video clip published days before Mbappe's speech in which Perez confirms that they - meaning Real Madrid - will sign Mbappe "but not this year" (5) (7).

Thirdly, ehm. Third, it may be somewhat embarrassing, because... As a matter of fact.. Well, have you heard of press reports claiming that the terms of the renewal included an "advisory role" for Mbappe in possible new signings and candidates for the role of manager and sporting director? Now some other press reports claim that these allegations were not mere allegations, nor were they confirmed facts either, and that the answer may lie somewhere in between this and that (7).

It started with the appointment of Luis Campos, a former Real Madrid scout and the man who led the sports management of Lille and Monaco respectively, and led each to the French league title with his superstitious ability to assemble excellent rosters of players with almost no potential. Campos was one of Mbappe's emerging talent incubators in Monaco, hence the smoke over Mbappe's "increasing roles at the club" (5) (7).

Shopping List

Cortikhana, through several sources close to the player and the two clubs, who declined to be identified, tells that Mbappe had identified three key names to sign after completing the renewal last summer: Aurélien Chuamini, Robert Lewandowski and Milan Shkriniar (3).

From right (Neymar, Mbappe and Messi) (Getty Images)

As you know, of course, the first joined Real Madrid, the second to Barcelona, and the third stayed at Inter until the end of his contract, and even lost his position in the starting line-up as well. The second crisis occurred when Mbappe began to feel that the signing of Messi pushed Neymar to the party, and this in turn personally pushed him to a more pivotal role in depth, and deprived him of his usual starts on the left, where he prefers to penetrate deep into the field diagonally by dribbling defenders on their weak feet, then it developed into a semi-open conflict against the Brazilian when the differences between them erupted on penalties, then last September the rumors were confirmed when Neymar was asked about his relationship with Mbappe following a friendly against Ghana in France, His only response was an angry and mocking exhalation after which he left the journalists' area (7).

Tensions between Mbappe and the Paris management increased in April, when the club published a trailer for season ticket holders with promotional phrases on the player's tongue, and Mbappe did not appear to have communicated the club's intention to use it in that particular way, or his subsequent Instagram post showed.

"I just watched the club's campaign to renew season tickets for the 2023-2024 season. I would like to note that I was not informed of the content of that interview in advance, and it seemed like a normal interview for the club's marketing department. I would also like to note that I do not agree with the content of the clip, which is why I fight for the independence of my image rights. Paris Saint-Germain is a big club and a big family, but it's not Kylian Saint-Germain."

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We know there are a thousand questions in your head now, so let's first start by explaining the meaning of "image rights", which simply includes everything that can be considered the property of the player alone, such as his name, surname, whether it is a family or just a familiar nickname, the image of his face and body of course, and any distinctive signs he may carry such as tattoos, earrings, gangs, etc. In short, everything it refers to exclusively is distinct from any other player, specifically everything that may be used in the advertising of that or that product/person/company/legal entity (8) (9).

Kylian was, and still is, managing the rights to his image in a distinctive and exceptional way, as he decided a long time ago, along with his agent and mother of Algerian origin, "Fayza El Amari", to associate his name with an exclusive group of highly elite business partners, who - in turn - will put him in a different segment from the rest of the players.

Most players, like Neymar, for example, adopt a "Scatter Gun" policy in hiring advertisers, sponsors and business partners, the Brazilian has 24 diverse partners, while Kilian decided to limit the list to only 4 (10): Swiss watch brand Hublot, American binoculars brand Oakley, her compatriot in video games EA Sports, and of course the famous sports clothing and equipment company Nike.

Most players believe that quantity brings quantity, while Mbappe believes that quality brings quantity, and this belief is of course true if you are Mbappe, because these partnerships made him the highest paid player in the world last season. The surprise here is that he reached that position and he does not have full control over the rights to his commercial image, which Paris Saint-Germain disputes according to the current contract and the past decades.

Peres is subject to

The biggest surprise is that this has never been a problem for two reasons: First, it makes sense for the club to receive a portion of the star's commercial image rights as long as the terms are fair in context, simply because they are part of the profits that accrue to the club in exchange for signing the star himself, giving him a huge salary, and countless other benefits.

Second, Mbappe knew he would have to give up the same or close to his image rights when he fulfilled his dream of moving to Real Madrid. In fact, this was – and still is – an untouchable historical tradition in the Spanish capital, it is true that we contract with the biggest stars, but it is also true that we are the biggest club in the world, so it makes sense to get part of the image rights of these stars, because they benefit from their presence at Real Madrid as the club benefits from their presence.

The only one who was excluded from that rule in Madrid was, don't be surprised, please, Cristiano Ronaldo. In the first renewal in 2013 he decided to negotiate with the club to control the rights to his full image, and after conflicts with Perez he had what he wanted. By the way, this explains his relatively low salary even in light of his repeated Champions League successes, and Perez's highly hostile leaks against him in 2012 while negotiating the renewal (11) (12).

In the first renewal of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2013 he decided to negotiate with Real Madrid to control the rights to his full image, and after conflicts with Perez he had what he wanted. (Getty Images)

Ronaldo sold the rights to his image to the Singaporean billionaire "Peter Lam" in 2013, and since then his gains have doubled to numbers that this report - or any other report - is not enough to count, which caused the rupture of his relationship with the president irrevocably, because the latter was watching him collect hundreds of millions of rights to his image alone without having Real Madrid, the club that Perez believes that he had the greatest impact on the increase in popularity and stardom, any share of it, which is also what prompted him to give it up easily as soon as it was announced Disobedience after the Kiev final (13).

All that brings us to the biggest surprise in that story, believe it or not, Florentino Pérez is ready to give Mbappe 100% of his image rights if he signs for his club, voluntarily, without disputes of any kind (5) (7).

This particular point was the subject of the main controversy between Perez and Fayza El Omari in the past, the first did not want to repeat the experience of the Portuguese and lose a lot of money from the rights to Mbappe's superstitious image over the years, and the second was of the opinion that Real Madrid has to offer more to tempt him to move from Paris, for the obvious and simple reason that Mbappe may need Real Madrid to make more history in the game, and achieve more titles, on top of which comes the Champions League of course, but in At the same time, he doesn't need Real Madrid to become the world's highest-paid player, because it is.

Mbappe has announced that he is happy in Paris and intends to continue until 2024, and in addition to the huge salary this gives him the advantage of receiving a huge signing bonus when he moves to Real Madrid. (Reuters)

Was this sudden change the reason for Mbappe to announce that he has no intention of renewing now? May be. What we know for sure is that Paris does not intend to lose him for nothing next summer, and may seek to sell him this summer to compensate for his losses on the one hand, and to avoid having to pay his exorbitant salary for an additional season on the other.

Does that mean you might soon see Mbappe in a sleek black suit wearing an Oplo watch worth tens of thousands of dollars with a Real Madrid shirt signed with his name and the number 2029? Maybe too. But what is certain is that we are facing another round of finger-biting between Mbappe, Paris and Pérez. The first announced that he is happy in Paris and intends to continue until 2024, and in addition to the huge salary, this gives him the advantage of receiving a huge signing bonus when he moves to Real Madrid as a free player in the summer of 2024, and in return means losses for Paris, not least the fact that their first star will leave for free after the departure of Messi already and the expected exit of Neymar (14).

Believe it or not, Perez, the man who succumbed to Mbappe's demands and his mother previously, is the one who has all the strings now, and the fate of the duo depends on his decision, and his assessment of how much the team needs such a contract this summer, especially after Benzema's sudden departure and Harry Kane's reluctance to leave the Premier League, but above all, his choice between revenge against Mbappe, or Paris.

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Sources:

  • 1- 7 transfer stories that will keep you laughing! – Sportskeeda
  • 2- Mercato January, the strangest transfers in history (2) – Al Jazeera
  • 3 - Real Madrid make their first offer for Mbappe – Marca
  • 4- Kylian Mbappe renews Paris contract until 2025 in a major blow to Real Madrid – Eurosport
  • 5- Kylian Mbappe and Paris Saint-Germain enter new summer of betting due to his desire to move to Real Madrid – The Athletic
  • 6- Kylian Mbappe tells Paris he doesn't want to renew his contract until 2025 – The Athletic
  • 7. Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid and the never-ending story – The Athletic
  • 8- Can someone explain the "commercial image rights" please?! – The Athletic
  • 9- What are the players' image rights and how have they affected Dybala's move to Tottenham? – Goal
  • 10. Kylian Mbappe's controversial work – Athletic Interest
  • 11- Cristiano Ronaldo. Madrid forever! – Marca
  • 12 - Ronaldo seeks full image rights – Football Espana
  • 13- The best deal Ronaldo has ever made! – Athletic Interest
  • 14 - Kylian Mbappe defies Paris management by talking about the "lies" of a move to Real Madrid – The Guardian