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Europe|French Soccer Icon Mbappé Battles Qatari-Owned Former Club for Millions
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/world/europe/kylian-mbappe-psg-qatar.html
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A long-simmering dispute pitting one of the world’s top athletes against France’s biggest soccer club has broken out into legal warfare.
April 11, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
It seemed to be a perfect match: France’s top soccer player agreeing to star for his hometown club. And for a while it was.
Kylian Mbappé was the star attraction that France’s premier team, Paris Saint-Germain, planned to build around for years to come. Its owners, an arm of the Qatari government, brought him back to Paris from Monaco in 2017 for about $200 million, a record deal for a teenager, and at the time the second-highest fee ever in soccer.
Goals were scored, trophies were secured, Mbappé became one of the most famous athletes in the world, and the bond between player and club was forged. Then came the trouble.
Mbappé, now 26, had since childhood dreamed of playing for Spain’s Real Madrid — soccer royalty — and his chance came in 2022 with his contract expiring. Ultimately, he stayed put, but only after a herculean effort that involved cajoling by President Emmanuel Macron of France and what the club claims was the richest contract in European soccer.
But just as quickly as things fell into place, they started to unravel. Mbappé left Paris after just two seasons, a year earlier than his deal had been widely understood to run. His move unleashed a bitter and protracted legal dispute, with Mbappé accusing his former club of harassment and demanding it pay him 55 million euros (about $61 million) he says he is owed. Paris Saint-Germain, in turn, has refused to pay, saying Mbappé had a verbal agreement, to cede that money and leave on good terms, with the team’s president and Qatar’s emissary to global soccer, Nasser al-Khelaifi.
The disagreement provides a rare public glimpse of the global market for soccer talent, pitting one of the world’s most prominent and influential athletes against a small but powerful and resource-rich Persian Gulf country. Qatar has emerged over the past decade as one of the biggest players in global sports, using its investments to raise its profile and hosting the 2022 World Cup.
