Kylian Mbappe became PSG’s all-time leading goalscorer in the Champions League tonight with his latest strike against Benfica.
The forward overtook Edinson Cavani with 31 goals, making Mbappe PSG’s outright goalscorer in the competition. It also marked Mbappe’s 37th Champions League goal at the age of 23.
But Mbappe’s record also comes at the strangest of times for the player and club. The Frenchman reportedly told PSG earlier today that he wants to leave the club in the January transfer window.
Mbappe’s desire comes just 143 days after he signed a new contract at PSG. In other words, he immediately regrets signing the big-money £650,000-a-week contract extension, and now it’ll take a world record fee — more than the €222m PSG paid to release Neymar from Barcelona — for the player to leave.
Mbappe’s souring attitude at PSG
Late last month, Mbappe got into a feud with teammate Neymar over penalty-kicking duties. But the enmity obviously ran deeper.
“He feels betrayed by the club in the sense that all the things the club promised him when he signed that new deal until 2025 have not happened,” said French football expert Julien Laurens on Mbappe’s situation at PSG.
According to Le Equipe, PSG promised Mbappe that the club would sell Neymar and sign a more traditional number nine like Robert Lewandowski so the Frenchman could play with more freedom. That denial and Mbappe’s weakening administrative power could be the center of the player’s frustration.
“Did his managers make him feel that the club was more important? Or did they make him feel that he was more important than the club? I didn’t like playing on the wing in Barcelona. I hated it. But I was doing it for the team,” opined Thierry Henry on Mbappé’s latest antics.
Is ego Mbappe’s biggest enemy? Possibly, and Real Madrid fans might be the next club to find out.
Photo: Twitter/@iF2is
