Kylian Mbappé's new residence: Top of the Football World
Kylian Mbappé's transfer saga, where he faced two of Europe's hottest clubs, ended with PSG retaining the French superstar. Rare is the player who leaves a contract with Real Madrid, but even rarer is the player who seriously masters the mechanisms usually left behind.
Art by Charbak DiptaBefore summer 22, there was summer 21. The memories are still fresh. A most perfect marriage, a union of more than two decades, was The two main suitors, the only likely ones, had seen the smoke signals from afar and started courting the troubled damsel, so signing Lionel Messi came down to a showdown between Qatar and the Emirs. united arab ats. Luckily for those on Manchester's blue side, the UAE-funded football team is streamlined enough to value a footballer's long-term place in their squad over their reputation.
Paris Saint Germain and Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), not so much. Before making the slot for Messi, they had already brought in Sergio Ramos and Gianluigi Donnarumma that summer. Ramos was aging and becoming more injury-prone, and PSG already had a mainstay in goal in Keylor Navas. They didn't really need it either, but couldn't resist signing a multiple Champions League-winning captain and Europe's hottest young goalkeeper.
Can you imagine what it must have been like for Mauricio Pochettino in that situation? In his first pre-season with PSG, he was eager to form a team, but had no agency over the squad his club was organizing. While some of the signings from this window, like Achraf Hakimi, Nuno Mendes and Georgino Wijnaldum, made sense, one wonders just how consulted Pochettino was during the recruitment process. In a team already loaded with attacks, including Mbappe, Neymar and Angel di Maria, Pochettino now had to adapt to Messi. His new full-backs were also attack-focused, leaving little valuable structure to hold the defense together.
On the other hand, technical genius in a financially unbalanced league can count for a lot. PSG have gone through most of their season never looking like a cohesive unit. Messi wasn't knocking in goals, but he was dishing out delicious passes on a plate for full-backs and wingers to overlap. Even their Champions League season got off to a good start, with a 2-0 group stage win over well-oiled Manchester City. QSI might have been onto something. Perhaps there was some magic to be had by rolling biased gold-plated dice into a spinning roulette wheel.
Thirty minutes from the end of their Cham...
Kylian Mbappé's transfer saga, where he faced two of Europe's hottest clubs, ended with PSG retaining the French superstar. Rare is the player who leaves a contract with Real Madrid, but even rarer is the player who seriously masters the mechanisms usually left behind.
Art by Charbak DiptaBefore summer 22, there was summer 21. The memories are still fresh. A most perfect marriage, a union of more than two decades, was The two main suitors, the only likely ones, had seen the smoke signals from afar and started courting the troubled damsel, so signing Lionel Messi came down to a showdown between Qatar and the Emirs. united arab ats. Luckily for those on Manchester's blue side, the UAE-funded football team is streamlined enough to value a footballer's long-term place in their squad over their reputation.
Paris Saint Germain and Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), not so much. Before making the slot for Messi, they had already brought in Sergio Ramos and Gianluigi Donnarumma that summer. Ramos was aging and becoming more injury-prone, and PSG already had a mainstay in goal in Keylor Navas. They didn't really need it either, but couldn't resist signing a multiple Champions League-winning captain and Europe's hottest young goalkeeper.
Can you imagine what it must have been like for Mauricio Pochettino in that situation? In his first pre-season with PSG, he was eager to form a team, but had no agency over the squad his club was organizing. While some of the signings from this window, like Achraf Hakimi, Nuno Mendes and Georgino Wijnaldum, made sense, one wonders just how consulted Pochettino was during the recruitment process. In a team already loaded with attacks, including Mbappe, Neymar and Angel di Maria, Pochettino now had to adapt to Messi. His new full-backs were also attack-focused, leaving little valuable structure to hold the defense together.
On the other hand, technical genius in a financially unbalanced league can count for a lot. PSG have gone through most of their season never looking like a cohesive unit. Messi wasn't knocking in goals, but he was dishing out delicious passes on a plate for full-backs and wingers to overlap. Even their Champions League season got off to a good start, with a 2-0 group stage win over well-oiled Manchester City. QSI might have been onto something. Perhaps there was some magic to be had by rolling biased gold-plated dice into a spinning roulette wheel.
Thirty minutes from the end of their Cham...
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