It is finally official as Kylian Mbappe finally announced his Paris Saint-Germain exit, something which was expected almost a year ago. The Frenchman is reportedly set to join Real Madrid as a free agent, and had already informed the PSG hierarchy that he would not be extending his contract.
Last June, Mbappe and PSG were at war as the attacker didn't want to extend his contract. It looked unlikely that he would be playing for PSG in the 2023-24 season, but the issue got resolved and both parties reached an agreement.
Also Read | Leverkusen rally late in draw with Roma to preserve unbeaten record and reach Europa League final
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, the 22-year-old formally announced his PSG exit and was visibly emotional. He also thanked the fans, all his PSG coaches and the backroom staff.
Here is the full transcript of what Mbappe said:
"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."
{{/usCountry}}"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."
{{/usCountry}}"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.”
This season turned out to follow a similar template once again, with PSG in a stage of transition. The departure of Mbappe will mark an end to PSG's galactico era, which also saw Lionel Messi and Neymar leave in the previous summer transfer window. Meanwhile, PSG failed to reach the Champions League final, losing to Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals.
For Mbappe, it won't be an easy decision to leave PSG, as he was born in Paris. He moved to PSG on loan initially with a mandatory purchase option of 180 million Euros in 2017. Since his debut, he has gone on to break plenty of club records, going past the likes of Pedro Miguel Pauleta, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani as the club's top-scorer in history.