According to conventional scriptwriting wisdom, there are only seven story varieties. These include the pursuit, the tragedy, the journey, and the return. These archetypes have sustained the human desire for stories, from myth and folklore to Hollywood blockbuster narratives.
Upon closer inspection, this orthodoxy has blossomed over the past few years. To these seven storytelling tropes must be added an eighth, a story so grand and so relentless that the other seven are beginning to look a little thin, with apologies for overcoming the monster and rags to prosperity.
Welcome to the most recent chapter of Kylian Mbappé’s possible transfer to Real Madrid, the greatest football transfer story ever recounted, a saga that seems to gain new layers of depth and texture with each retelling.
On Monday, it was reported that a letter had been delivered to the Paris Saint-Germain offices informing them that the club’s star player would not be exercising the option to extend his contract.
This leaves the club with three options: sit idly by as Mbappé departs for free in a year, offer a new and increasingly absurd contract, or sell him this summer.
The first two alternatives are not viable. The third option now appears most probable.
You may believe that this is a mundane story about football superstars. However, as with any bardic story cycle, the importance lies in the depth of the particulars. Mbappé’s letter follows last summer’s renegotiation, in which he was offered profound and, to be honest, quite bizarre levels of club influence. This was followed by what Mbappé historians refer to as The October Crisis, when the promised new status turned out to be a letdown and the Mbappé industrial complex once again began making murmurs of discontent, threat, and departure.
The Qatari proprietors of PSG reportedly reacted with “deep anger” to the latest development. According to some reports, a deadline of July 31 had been set for a decision on this matter. Unanimous rejection without discussion has been interpreted as an act of hostility.
Mbappé tweeted on Tuesday afternoon that he is “happy” in Paris and plans to remain for the upcoming season. But this is essentially irrelevant. A year is a year, and Paris has no actual leverage in negotiations with actual Madrid, for example. Instead, the club’s owners are in a rare commercial weakness, with an asset that may be bought cheaply. Hmm. This sort of occurrence has never occurred with liquefied petroleum gas.
This elicits two apparent responses. The first is a profound feeling of tedium. Really? Continue with this?
Mbappé’s most significant contribution to European club football to date has been the annual summer mini-industry of transfer rumors, the stage-managed and highly lucrative speculation over his footballing future. And talk is not inexpensive in this organization. Even background conversation generates new deals, new inducements, and economic activity for a multilayered industry of hangers-on and gossip megaphones. All of it is now extremely sarcastic, cynical, and excessively drawn out. In the words of one of Mbappé’s most important corporate sponsors: just do it.
The second response is, of course, schadenfreude, the intriguing spectacle of a club constructed as a personality cult, an attraction to celebrity worship, being hung out to dry by an empowered celebrity individualist. Mbappé is at least remaining loyal to his club culture in his pursuit of a larger portion of the universe. Perhaps this is what is meant by football’s genetic makeup.
This is a major European football event for reasons outside Mbappé’s influence. This is a macroeconomic flowchart illustrating a tree of effects. Mbappé’s departure would undoubtedly inflate the summer market for elite attackers, creating a sort of snakes and ladders board for players like Harry Kane and Victor Osimhen.
Mbappé’s move to Madrid would eliminate any possibility of Kane following suit. However, this may increase the likelihood of Kane or Marcus Rashford moving to Paris.
Chelsea spins like a Catherine wheel and throws money at the globe. There will be repercussions.
On a more fundamental level, despite all the clamor and the endless plot twists – which are somehow always the same plot twist – this would be an excellent and much-needed move for all parties involved.
The advantages for Madrid are evident. The incessant melodrama, tantrums, and tension with Mbappé’s current employers may cause some concern, but Madrid is familiar with egotism on a galactic scale. Come over here and fill us in on the details Kylian, you are an elderly man. It appears to be an outstanding match in terms of position, age, and vitality. Five years from now, a Madrid squad featuring Aurélien Tchouaméni, Eduardo Camavinga, Vinicius Jnior, Jude Bellingham, and Mbappé should have the globe in its grasp. Additionally, there are vibe-based benefits. The cartel, Madridista drama, and old world would win Mbappé from PSG over the carbon parvenus. Who knows, maybe the Super League will become obsolete.
Mbappé, who isn’t the world’s finest or Paris’s best, would benefit. It’s time to move and test your limits.
Plus, despite the outrage over the loss of their most cherished possession, this could be a tonic for PSG, who are no closer to winning the Champions League than they were before Mbappé’s 2017 arrival.
In their place, these years have brought a state of high-powered stasis and ostentatious decay. Has there ever been a more preposterous imitation of a legitimate sports organization? Never before has a football club had such an impact on the economics of the sport while offering so little. It has been the most pointless and destructive period, the nadir of the nation-state propaganda-ball.
Paris is one of the greatest football talent factories in the world. With these advantages, PSG could have been 1970s Ajax or La Masia. Instead, we have a profoundly cynical PR stunt that has normalized obscene spending and deprived the sport of some of its finest, most uplifting talents during its prime years.
Mbappé’s wranglings disempower the billionaire overclass, and it is satisfying to see a participant take charge of his fate. This, however, is now obscured by a sense of unhappiness and dysfunctional relationships, in a club that, despite its wealth and noise, has become inherently miserable. Time to put an end to this story cycle and subject that extraordinary talent to the ultimate test.
