Mbappe’s pay dispute with his former club PSG

Two of football’s biggest names are locking horns in a pay dispute that could be about to turn into a courtroom drama.

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and their former striker Kylian Mbappe, now with Real Madrid, are at loggerheads over unpaid wages prior to the France captain’s departure for the Spanish capital in July.

Mbappe claims PSG owes him $60.6m in wages which the Parisians say the striker agreed to waive in August 2023.

The striker alleges he is owed the total sum following an unpaid signing bonus he was expecting to receive in February, the three final months of his salary, as well as an “ethical bonus” covering the period.

PSG and Mbappe first fell out last year when the forward refused to sign a contract extension and was frozen out of the team. He was later reinstated into the first-team squad after the parties arrived at an apparent resolution.

Media reports last year said Mbappe had agreed to forego loyalty bonuses if he left PSG on a free transfer. Then, in January, Mbappe said he made an agreement with PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi which would “protect all parties and preserve the club’s serenity for the challenges ahead”.

The striker, as expected, left the club at the end of the 2023-24 season for Madrid as a free agent.

Lawyers representing the two parties met early on Wednesday after Mbappe, who joined Madrid this summer, had referred his case to the French Football League’s (LFP) legal committee, which then offered to mediate.

Mbappe’s entourage said on Wednesday that they had refused the league’s offer to act as a mediator between the parties.

“The eventuality of a mediation was mentioned,” Mbappe’s entourage said in a statement. “This possibility was rejected during the meeting by the player’s representative. A mediation would be useless to establish a lack of payment that can be seen from a simple analysis of the player’s payslip.”

PSG had welcomed the proposition of mediation. “Paris Saint-Germain is very pleased with today’s two-hour hearing before the commission,” the French club said. “The club recalled that the player has made clear repeated public and private commitments that must be respected, having been afforded unprecedented benefits by the club over seven fantastic years in Paris.

“In the light of the club’s oral and documented arguments, the commission insisted on mediation between the parties, which Paris Saint-Germain has been seeking for many months.

“The Commission has now invited the player to consider the mediation process.”