Sports

Mbappe bags hat-trick in 50min, confirms PSG’s stay

Paris Saint-Germain forward, Kylian Mbappe, on Saturday, confirmed he has signed a new three-year contract worth almost £1m a week with the club.

The 23-year-old France international had been widely expected to leave the Ligue 1 champions for Real Madrid at the end of the season upon the expiry of his existing deal on June 30.

Madrid, who were willing to pay €230m to sign the forward on Deadline Day last summer, were ready to give Mbappe a signing-on fee of £110m and wages of £20m-a-year after tax. Their total investment would have been about £300m.

Mbappe was presented on the pitch ahead of PSG’s Ligue 1 match at home to Metz – in which he scored a hat-trick – and said: “I would like to announce that I have chosen to extend my contract at Paris Saint-Germain, and of course I am delighted.

“I am convinced that here I can continue to grow at a club that provides everything necessary to perform at the highest level.

“I am also delighted to continue to play in France, the country where I was born, where I have grown up and where I have made my name,” he stated.

Mbappe becomes the highest-paid player in world football on wages of around £1m a week after pocketing a signing-on fee in the region of £100m from PSG.

The news of Mbappe’s U-turn was, however, met with a vociferous response from Spanish football authorities, with LaLiga saying it will complain to UEFA, French tax authorities and the European Union over PSG’s “non-compliance with UEFA’s financial fair play”.

A statement from LaLiga on Saturday night read: “This type of agreement attacks the economic sustainability of European football, putting at risk hundreds of thousands of jobs and sporting integrity at risk – not only in European competitions, but also in domestic leagues.

“It is scandalous a club like PSG, which last season reported losses of more than €220m, after accumulating losses of more than €700m in prior seasons (while reporting sponsorship income at a doubtful valuation) with a cost of sports staff around €650m for this 2021-22 season, can face an agreement of these characteristics while those clubs that could accept the arrival of the player without seeing their wage bill compromised, are left without being able to sign him.

“For all of the above, LaLiga is going to file a complaint against PSG before UEFA, administrative and tax authorities in France and before the competent bodies of the European Union, to continue defending the economic ecosystem of European football and its sustainability.”

The Star