Kylian Mbappe reveals ‘the mistake I made’ at PSG as the Real Madrid superstar opens up on his summer departure – including a parting message from the Emir of Qatar

The summer window finally brought an end to one of modern football’s most protracted and seemingly inevitable transfer sagas, with Kylian Mbappé finally making the move from Paris Saint-Germain to Real Madrid.

The France captain had emerged as the brightest jewel in an already gaudy crown at the Parisian outlet, even while playing alongside a litany of living legends and breaking records along the way.

However, with the player making no secret of his ambitions to one day play for Real Madrid, ties with the Spanish titans resurfaced once his PSG contract came to fruition.

Yet he would extend his deal again and again and remain in the French capital, with his most recent extension before his departure drawing attention to the finances involved, before finally dedicating time to that chapter of his career this summer .

Mbappé went to Madrid, but things were far from ideal; Five goals have been scored in his first eight league games, but his recent form has seen him come under increasing scrutiny – not helped by being dropped from France and missing two penalties – although it appears he may finally be turning the corner seems to go.

But now the 25-year-old has opened up about his departure from PSG and detailed where he thinks things went wrong at his former club, the ‘obsession’ with winning the Champions League – and his parting words with the emir of Qatar.

“PSG, ​​the club meant a lot to me,” Mbappé began in an interview Clique on Canal+. ‘I spent seven years there, it’s a super intense place, both in good and bad times. I spent seven extraordinary years. Maybe the mistake I made was that I mixed everything up.

‘I had conflicts with people, I defended my rights as a player, but that did not represent the club. I never mixed everything up with the players, the people on Campus, the staff.’

His final season at PSG began in somewhat acrimonious circumstances after reports suggested that campaign would indeed end with his departure, rather than another contract extension.

The club were reportedly keen to receive a fee for a player considered one of the very best in the world and cash in on him in the summer of 2023 with a year left on his contract, but no move was made and he did leave 12 months later . .

Tensions were beginning to fester, and the fact that his official announcement that he would be leaving at the end of 2023/2024 did not come through club channels hardly helped. Instead of leaving the nearly all-conquering hero to much pomp and circumstance, there was no ceremony and some fans voiced their opinions.

‘I could have been more expressive with the supporters. They say to themselves: “Kylian doesn’t care”. They think it was a hobby before they went to Madrid.

‘I still watch PSG matches. I know the club by heart. If they lose, I know how hard it is. We have to talk about PSG because it is the club that sells. It is PSG that feeds everyone.

‘I have always maintained this bond with PSG. It’s a relationship you can’t break like that.’

He added: ‘I still watch PSG games, I played there for seven years. I know very well the state of mind the players are in, how difficult it is because everyone is bothering people with this obsession with the Champions League. I have always kept in touch with PSG.’

It’s no secret that the French club wants to finally win the Champions League trophy. It sounds easy to say, but there is an argument that the trophy would mean more to PSG than most others.

Rather than just being the sign that you’re the best team on the continent – ​​for at least one season – finally winning the trophy would finally be some vindication for a project that’s entering its second decade without ever really coming to fruition .

There aren’t many clubs in the world that have spent as much money as PSG over the last fifteen years, and although they have been almost insurmountable in France (34 domestic trophies since 2009-2010), they still miss out on the one honor that would become official promised. rank them among the European elite.

It also doesn’t help that at various times in recent years they have had a staggering arsenal at their disposal, including – but not limited to – Lionel Messi, Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, Thiago Silva, Angel Di Maria, Marquinhos and Marco Verratti.

‘Will PSG win the Champions League? For now I hope not, because I want to win,” Mbappé joked.

‘In the future I hope they win, because the people have suffered a lot. But not now, because I have to win.

‘My story in Paris, I wrote it. I’ve broken records, I’ve won titles. Now I play for the best club in the world.’

Reports suggested a deterioration in Mbappe’s relationship with club chief Nasser Al-Khelaifi last season, but the 25-year-old was quick to make it clear he was parting ways with his former side on good terms.

With the club perhaps feeling that the battle to retain their prize player was anything but an option, reports emerged that the Emir of Qatar himself would intervene to try to turn the tide.

However, according to Mbappé, the emir understood that his heart was set on Madrid, and instead thanked the player for his seven years of service and opted not to make a final counter-offer.

‘I was in the car and news came that the Emir of Qatar would make an irresistible offer to stay at PSG.

He said to me: “You see, they think I am going to make you an offer, but you have decided to leave and I respect your decision. You want to realize your dream of going to Real Madrid, thank you for everything.”

‘That touched me. I told him I would do my best until the end of the season.”

“Relations with the emir have always been excellent.”