Dealing with money and career
© Imago
Kylian Mbappé has in a detailed interview with “Le Magazine L’équipe“As open and rarely gave insights into his soul life and spoken about his attitude to the football business, the quality of the French national team and his legal dispute with Paris Saint-Germain. The 26-year-old attacker from Real Madrid also answered the question of whether this could destroy all of the money.
“Yes, it can. The more money you have, the more problems you have,” said Mbappé, who – including bonus payments – once switched from Monaco to PSG for 180 million euros and joined the royal free of charge a year ago. “Some do not see that your life has changed, they want to keep the picture of you that they have from your childhood when you were still with them … but you are no longer the same. You have responsibility, obligations to make a job, accounting,” said the French offensive star.
“If some go with you, the beautiful stories are. It is nice if you grow up with the same family and intimate base and make it to the top. But sometimes it doesn’t work and you have to say. That does not mean that the connection has broken off, but this relationship does not work. This is easier said than done and it is a problem with which many athletes and personalities are confronted,” said Mbappé. The move to Madrid has financially slightly losses Mbappé. “Forbes” is a slightly lower figure at the goal scorer than during his time in Paris: 70 million instead of $ 90 million salary with the same amount of ancillary income (20 million) Mbappé bring 16th place in the world of sport.
Born in Paris, he not only got to know the sun’s, but also the dark sides in his profession. “I am fatalistic about the world of football, but not in terms of life. Life is beautiful. Football is beautiful. I like to say that the people who go to the stadium are lucky to see ‘just’ a show and not know what happens behind the scenes.
“What does he want from me?” Mbappé explains how to deal with people
The Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo once said that he could only blindly trust four people. Mbappé can feel that, he said: “I understand that. I just said that you shouldn’t fall into Paranoia … but you are still a bit affected by it.” Why does he tell me? What does he want from me? What does he expect from me? ‘ There are many questions. No, he is paranoid because he is only surrounded by crazy people.
Mbappé apparently does not see himself particularly treated. “You are never king,” said, with a market value of 180 million euros according to Lamine Yamal, the most valuable footballer in the world. “I was lucky to make a lot of money, but I never had the feeling that I was treated like a king. That I was let everything go through. That you said yes to everything. If you have to say no, you have to say no … My family members say no more often than yes,” laughed Mbappé. If one day he should have children, he would “definitely (…) never advise you to get into the world of football.”
You only have a career and I want to enjoy the good and bad moments to the fullest.
Mbappé completed his first season at Real with 44 goals and five templates in 59 games. In the race for the golden shoe, he was able to pass Viktor Gyökeres from Sporting Lisbon. In the PSG jersey, the right foot had delivered 256 goals and 110 assists in 308 encounters. About his dealings after playing and generally with good and bad experiences on the square said Mbappé: “On the same evening I don’t look at the game, even if I won. You can always find mitigating circumstances or dramatize the situation. I have no ritual anyway. Every game is an opportunity to write history. Good and the bad moments to the fullest.
Mbappé was also asked when the last time he shed tears. The striker’s answer: “I only cry when I am hurt. In defeats, I assume that you have earned it somehow. Nobody deserves. One has more or less influence on a defeat. But the last time I had almost cried because of football, when we did not play with PSG against Manchester City in the semi-final second leg (in the Champions League 2021; I almost crowded because you are not useful.
Mbappé sees room for improvement: How good is France’s national team?
The professional has never won the premier class-ex-club PSG achieved this feat in the first year after his departure. With France, on the other hand, Mbappé became world champion in 2018, four years later Les Bleus failed in the final of Argentina. He revealed what he trusts the current occupation of the national team. France is the “most talented” team with the “greatest potential”, but “not yet” the strongest. “Stem players of the best clubs in the world are playing in all positions. Now it only has to work. But as a team we are not yet stronger than the team that became world champion in 2018 than those who were in the final in 2022. Does this team have the potential to be the best team? 100 percent. Will it be? That is up to us. We have to be ambitious with players of this quality.”
National coach Didier Deschamps will experience his farewell at the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico. The 56-year-old has been in office since 2012. “The coach left indelible traces in the history of the French national team and it is undoubtedly an event that the last time it is that Didier Deschamps trains the French national team,” Mbappé praised the coach’s merits. “But it is a world championship. And even if Didier Deschamps is a great personality, the World Cup is still greater. You want to win it because it is the World Cup not because it is the last game of Didier Deschamps. If we can give him this gift, then, because it is a living legend, but the World Cup is the World Cup …”
Weltstar Mbappé also commented on his allegedly polarizing personality, who is often kept: “I have turned conventions and hierarchies upside down. There are also things that I did wrong. Sometimes I did things that have never happened before. I am aware of it, but I try to live my career with passion. It is impossible to do everything right or wrong. The greatest strength of a champion, its clarity.
The attacker continued: “Even if I did things that seemed completely stupid, I think that I have never lost a reference to reality. I knew what I was doing was not right. Sometimes I did it because I needed it. Sometimes there was a message behind it. You can’t explain everything, so misunderstandings can come with other people. I never leaned on.
Mbappé comments on a legal dispute with PSG: “Just wanted to be paid”
Mbappé’s legal examination with his ex-club Paris Saint-Germain recently made headlines. In April, the lawyers of Real Madrid’s top striker temporarily confiscated 55 million euros on the accounts of the French master in the dispute over outstanding salaries. This had apparently been done because the club refused to pay the sum of outstanding salaries and bonuses despite two convictions by the legal commission and the appeal committee of the league association, according to lawyer Thomas Clay in Paris. In December 2024, the disciplinary commission of the LFP actually decided that the lawsuit was inadmissible.
I could have made a scandal there during my time, but I thought it was not worth it.
The million -of -chief of Mbappé demanded the outstanding monthly salaries for April, May and June 2024, the last third of a bonus payment for a former contract extension and an “ethical bonus” for the last contract months. PSG referred to an oral agreement, which is why the club bosses thought not to have to pay the sum. Mbappé, on the other hand, saw the oral agreement as not fulfilled because his season was drastically reduced to Madrid after his change in change.
With regard to the legal dispute with PSG, Mbappé now described his perspective: “It is entitled to work law. The procedure gave the impression that I wanted to harm PSG. I just signed an employment contract. I wanted to be paid. I have nothing against PSG, I like this club, I have friends there. But that is the only way to get my money, something that I want to do with my sweat. But I already knew that when the money is not.