PSG withhold £10m from Kylian Mbappe as forward demands £85m payment

Paris Saint-Germain are withholding two months’ wages – €12.5 million (£10.6 million) – from Kylian Mbappé’s final payment from the club.

The move comes in an increasingly acrimonious dispute with Mbappé who, it is understood, is demanding he is actually owed €100m (£84.5m) in salary and loyalty bonuses.

Earlier this month, Mbappé signed a five-year deal to join Real Madrid after allowing his contract at PSG to run down. It formally expires on June 30.

It means he is leaving on a free transfer having refused to trigger a 12-month extension on his deal at PSG who were desperate to keep the forward.

The announcement ended a transfer saga that had dragged on for several years, with Madrid having pursued Mbappé and PSG considering making a formal ‘tapping up’ complaint to Fifa.

In May 2022, Mbappé dramatically turned down Madrid, with a last-minute decision to renew with PSG. The contract was billed as running until 2025 – but that included the option to extend.

Mbappé earned €75m (£63.4m) a year gross in salary at PSG who believe they do not owe him any extra money. They are holding back payment of the last two months of his contract, however, until the dispute is resolved.

Negotiations are ongoing between the two parties with PSG pointing to statements made by Mbappé, not least after the Champions Trophy match (France’s equivalent of the Community Shield) last season, that he wanted the club to be protected financially.

PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi later claimed there was “more of a gentleman’s agreement than a signed one” with Mbappé and that the 25-year-old had said he would “never do anything to harm the club”.

PSG believe this meant Mbappé had agreed to give up a substantial portion of any bonus and this appeared to be the case. It looked like the player wanted to make the gesture so that PSG did not lose out but this is now being disputed.

Last year, PSG tried to make Mbappé sign another new contract which would have had a “guaranteed sale clause” allowing him to leave that summer. He refused. For a while he was excluded from the first team and forced to train with the so-called “loft group” – the unwanted players who were away from the ‘A’ main squad.

Eventually he was brought back in and played under coach Luis Enrique with his last game being the Coupe de France final win over Lyon.

Mbappé is captaining France at the European Championship but missed Friday’s goalless draw against the Netherlands after breaking his nose in the opening group game against Austria.

He has been fitted for a mask but France coach Didier Deschamps said he was not willing to risk him. He is also unlikely to start France’s final group game against Poland – who became the first nation to be eliminated from the Euros – even though the team has struggled without him.

“If it had been a decisive game I may have thought twice about him playing or not,” Deschamps said. “But it is important for me to think about how he is feeling, he has a bruise, he has to wear a mask and that may change his vision too. There is also the risk we would be taking and with each day passing we are getting to the point where he is better as well. I felt the wiser decision was to keep him on the bench.”

The injury has caused concern at Madrid who were relieved when Mbappé confirmed that he will not play for France’s Olympic team at the Paris games having initially said he was keen to do so. Madrid opposed the idea.