The worst-kept secret in world football is now official – Kylian Mbappé (25) is leaving Paris Saint-Germain. In an emotional video, posted on social media, Mbappé announced what everyone already knew – he will not extend his contract and he will therefore leave the club at the end of the season.
Mbappé had already informed Nasser Al-Khelaifi of this fact earlier in the year. However, the news was yet to be made official. It had been thought that an official announcement would only arrive once there was no possibility of Mbappé facing his reported future club, Real Madrid, in this season’s UEFA Champions League. Les Parisiens’ elimination at the hands of Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday paved the way for the official announcement.
https://twitter.com/KMbappe/status/1788991573029712287
The announcement comes just two days before Mbappé’s final game at the Parc des Princes as a PSG player. Sunday’s match against Toulouse FC will be the moment that PSG lift the Ligue 1 title for the third consecutive season but also the moment that they say goodbye to Mbappé after seven years at the club.
Read the full transcript of Mbappé’s goodbye message below:
“Hi everyone! It’s Kylian. I wanted to speak to you. I’ve always said to you that I would speak with you when the time was right and so I wanted to tell you that it’s my last year at Paris Saint-Germain.I will not extend and the adventure will come to an end in a few weeks. I will play my last game at the Parc des Prince on Sunday. There are lots of emotions, many years where I have had the chance to the great honour to be a member of the biggest club in France, one of the best in the world, which has allowed me to arrive here, to have my first experience at a club with a lot of pressure, to grow as a player and play alongside some of the best in history, some of the great champions, to meet a lot of people, to grow as a man as well with all of the glory and the mistakes that I have made.”
>> WATCH | Kylian Mbappé posts PSG goodbye video
“First of all, I wanted to thank my teammates, all the teammates that I have played with; all of the coaches: Unai Emery, Thomas Tuchel, Mauricio Pochettino, Christophe Galtier and Luis Enrique; the sporting directors: Leonardo and Luis Campos, for always accompanying me; everyone at the club, those that we don’t see, the people who work in the shadows be it the physios, the intendants, the performance team, everyone in the offices, at the Campus – everyone. All of these incredible people give everything for the club and they deserve this recognition. Despite everything that can happen on the outside, all of this media hype surrounds the club sometimes. There are really people that love the club and want to protect it and make it shine and I know that with all of these people, the club is in great hands.”
“It’s difficult, it’s difficult and I never thought it would be this difficult to announce this, to leave my country – France, to leave Ligue 1, a league that I have always known but I think that I needed this – a new challenge after this year. It’s difficult and there are people that I want to thank above all – the supporters. I know that I am not the most demonstrative player, I have not always lived up to the love that you all gave me over the course of these seven years, but I never wanted to cheat. I always wanted to be effective.”
“PSG is a club that leaves no one indifferent – you either love it or you hate it. I made the choice to love it and I did it for seven years, with highs and lows for sure but I do not regret, not at any moment, signing at this prestigious club. It’s a club that I will keep in my memory for my whole life. I will tell everybody, for the rest of my life, that I was lucky enough to play here and now I won’t be a player here any more but I will continue to watch every game of course because it’s a club that I’ll always be interested in and I will always follow closely follow the news of the club.”
“It was me, with my qualities and my defects but I tried to give the best version of myself during these seven years. But more than anything, I want to say thank you because without all of you, I would never have experienced half of the emotions that I have and just for that, I am eternally grateful. Thank you everyone. I hope we will finish this year with one final trophy. We’ll have some more good times in the time that is left and know that you will be forever in my heart. Ici c’est Paris.”
GFFN | Luke Entwistle
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