Paris. This is Paris. And what kind of place then?
Well, one blocks the big prizes but keeps the biggest fish in the club.
Kylian Mbappe’s contract extension almost made us forget PSG’s failed season tonight. It is an achievement in itself.
School graduation times, freshly laundered team jerseys and a slightly noisy atmosphere on the way to the Parc des Princes in the evening sun. Is it true that it was said he would really stay?
At the press entrance to the arena, the staff laughed that “El Chiriguito” – the crazy Spanish football talk show that pushed Mbappe to Madrid’s toughest streak ever – already had a certified journalist for tonight’s game.
About six hours before kick-off against Metz came the two-sided confirmation:
Team: “Stay”
Brand: “Stays”
It means “he stays” and was, in both French and Spanish, talking about Kylian Mbappe.
A cool breeze was equal parts rest and intoxicating summer vacation Paris The early summer heat is rather stagnant. When the speaker called out Mbappé’s name during the eleven pre-match revision, the volume rose sharply at the Parc des Princes.
Sweet when football fans burst into tears
And then a few minutes into the match: a scene quickly filmed from the inside, the club’s journalist, the club’s president and the club’s extender seizing the opportunity.
– Kylian Mbappe signed a contract until 2025, Nasser Al-Khelaifi declared victorious before handing the microphone to the main character in the evening himself.
– Thank you, I am very happy to continue this adventure, to stay in France in my hometown. Kylian Mbappe said: “I have always said that Paris is my home, as if nothing had happened.
As if the second change of club last summer didn’t happen. As if this spring, when his future was one long marathon for supporters of PSG and Real Madrid, he no longer exists. As if it hadn’t actually been four full summers since 2017 when he left Monaco, which Real Madrid thought they had kept the Frenchman on hand, essentially in their locker room, before being suspended by Paris FC at the last minute.
Any geniuses anyway, PSG.
At about the same moment, the referee blew up the Champions League final in Turin, with Lyon convincingly beating Barcelona 3-1 and where Ada Hegerberg The company regained European throne and world domination after temporarily lending it to the Catalans last year.
“After Mbappe who chose to stay in Paris Saint-Germain instead of going to Real and Lyon who beat Barcelona in the first division final…French football has made life so bad for Spanish football today” on Twitter French journalist Siani Dalmatt and Javier Tebas did not inform For any deviation of opinion on the topic.
“What Paris Saint-Germain does when they go ahead with Mbappe with huge sums of money (…) is insurance against football. Al-Khalaifi is as dangerous as the Premier League,” the La Liga president tweeted excessively.
Of course, it’s cute when football fans break into tears. It’s a pity that sometimes we have to wait for spring to come here to see it all.
PSG have failed in most things this year
You can read about the amounts, figures, and legal implications elsewhere. You have here to analyze and eyes the Parc des Princes. And of course the stadium of Paris Saint-Germain was boiling tonight in front of Metz. The timing of Mbappe’s show was brilliant on several levels. It is reported that the pendulum in the best European football has fluctuated in recent years. Real Madrid always gets the players they want, if not on the first try, then there is no doubt in second place. This time it hasn’t, and it’s of course a message the PSG owners are taking with them all the way to this fall’s World Cup finals in Qatar. The loss of Mbappe six months before the start of the Hermitage Championship was a small scandal for Qatar, and the image, you know, is the only thing they have to work with. And money of course.
The image, at the moment, is the only thing PSG has to brag about as well. He has certainly reclaimed the Ligue 1 title this year, but facing Real Madrid in the Champions League in the Round of 16 and failing to come home with the Coupe de France as a sort of patch is very upsetting for the club. French.
Inside, a group of benefactors ran up and reminded us of what the Mbappe extension had managed to put in for a few minutes; PSG have failed in most things this year.
Backline: Sergio Ramos, who came on as a superstar last summer, is off the season with eleven league games, a cup game and a loss in Europe.
A little ahead in plan: Lionel Messi, whose performance last summer didn’t require any presentation, scored eleven goals in 32 league and Champions League games (well, let’s not forget his 13 assists in Ligue 1). In the most important matches he was somewhat invisible and regardless of whether it was impossible to live up to the hype, Messi underperformed at PSG. There is no kinder way to say it, and it’s true too.
And somewhere in the technical field with a resigned mind: Mauricio Pochettino, whose resignation is likely to be announced tomorrow, Sunday. The exit against Real Madrid may happen, but it is not So. And not being able to put together two great Ligue 1 games in a row with the attacking crew at his disposal deserves nothing other than an overstatement.
Team members form a corridor
And of course Angel Di Maria who would have been fired after seven seasons at the club and whose farewell, so to speak, ended up a bit in the shadows. But Auteuil’s curve was remembered and they sang a song in honor of the Argentine at the start of the second half, and Di Maria shyly turned towards them with an outstretched arm and thanked.
By that time, 45 minutes had already passed, Kylian Mbappe scored two goals, and Neymar one. The next came at the start of the second half, by Kylian Mbappe again, but the fifth night (!) came from Angel Di Maria. One of football’s most loyal soldiers, a world star without charisma and perhaps without a PR team behind him as well. After the goal came the tears. It was the best moment of the evening. Beloved angel.
A few minutes later, his teammates formed a pass when the Argentine was substituted and do you have any objections to that at all? Yes, if you’re a Metz and you’re fighting for your life maybe. The guests didn’t have much to bring tonight, but unfortunately they had a place in first class defense. When Saint-Etienne, who had been balancing in the relegation zone before the final round of the night, drew against Nantes ten minutes before the end of the match, Metz suddenly fell into the Ligue 1 championship. There they join Bordeaux, another French giant that has done everything wrong this year. Saint-Étienne will qualify to survive.
Possibly the most classic three French football establishments to have participated in the relegation ceremony simultaneously and at the same time, they are of course a bit squishy for a league that lives in many ways on its traditions.
But at Paris Saint-Germain, nobody cared about that tonight. Even Lens not saving the Marseille CL place with a draw against Monaco at 90+6 could lower the mood in the capital.
It was the handing out of scholarships, school graduations, thank-you notes and tears as Paris Saint-Germain chants bounced between the stands.
Paris Saint-Germain is closing in on a failed season, no matter how it twists and turns. But tonight, at least the fans had something else to think about. They were, odd as they may sound, worthy.