“Indispensable goalscorer” or “overinflated ego”: French star Kylian Mbappé will end his seven-year relationship with the Paris Saint Germainwith whose fans he lived ups and downs.
As in most love stories, it all started with passion: songs in his honor and flags with his face began to fill the Parc des Princes, especially in the ‘ultras’ stands of the Auteuil tribune.
Born and raised in the Paris region, Mbappé soon became a global star and, therefore, an idol at the PSG stadium.
But the 25-year-old player had moments when his popularity among fans decreased, mainly due to moments of doubts about his continuity or even fears that he would leave for another club. Most of them were false alarms, but this season the idea of leaving the French team took on a more real form and the player’s own announcement this Friday cannot be considered a surprise, as everyone considered it a fait accompli.
The goals made him a beloved player for many, although another sector of the fans accused him of not being very expressive and never considered him very in tune with the ‘ultras’ or other groups of the team’s supporters. Always focused on his sporting goals, Mbappé even admitted in the video in which he announced his departure that his relationship with part of the fans was never very fluid.
“There are people I would like to thank, above all: the fans”, says the star. “I know that I wasn’t the one who responded most with gestures and that I wasn’t always up to the love you gave me for seven years,” he said.
MERCI. 🔴🔵 @PSG_inside pic.twitter.com/t0cL2wPpjX
— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) May 10, 2024
After the announcement, the player went to the PSG stadium to meet with the club’s fans, an AFP photographer confirmed.
From love to hate
Despite his statistics, being PSG’s all-time top scorer and performances such as the hat-trick against Barcelona in 2021, for many fans there are other recent players who are more beloved.
“Apart from the numerical data, it is nothing compared to what could be in relation to Edinson Cavani or Ángel Di María. He is very aseptic”, assesses Icham Barrouk, 36 years old. “In this club there is romanticism, there is affection”, he says.
“We lost an overinflated ego, but also an indispensable goalscorer. Even if we sign three great midfielders, we will never make up for their output,” Jonathan Partula, a 42-year-old engineer, who claims to have “gone from passionate love to hate,” told AFP. .
“Maybe we would have ended the relationship as friends if we had won the Champions League this season,” he says. PSG were eliminated in Tuesday’s semi-final against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, which the club has never won in its history.
✨👀
❤️💙 #ICICESTPARIS | #AI pic.twitter.com/f0t5aCAjzx
— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_inside) May 10, 2024
In a similar tone, Lea Canches, a thirty-year-old criminal lawyer and a big fan of the club from the French capital, also shows her frustration: “For me, he won’t mark the club’s history because of all the noise there has been every year. He’s a great player, but not a great PSG player.”
The question that remains is what reception the fans will give him on Sunday, on his last night as a PSG player, against Toulouse, in the 33rd round of Ligue 1.
“When I found out about his departure I felt the impact, I was in a state of shock, but I’m not going to say goodbye. For me, he hasn’t respected the club for several months”, laments Jonathan Partula.
The majority of PSG fans questioned by AFP do not understand that Real Madrid is their likely new destination.
“There he will never break the record, here he could have continued breaking it. Furthermore, he goes to our worst enemy,” said Partula. “It’s a feeling comparable to a breakup, that something is left unfinished,” she admitted.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
