The Mbappé case accurately expresses the double narrative of football, used to being handled in emotional terms, but decided by business issues.
This peculiar harmony allows all kinds of explanations for the Frenchman's renewal by PSG and his rejection of Real Madrid's offer.
His decision is defended or attacked from a moral perspective that raises the temperature of the matter to the boiling point, incandescence that always favors football.
The more noise, the better.
It is a principle that works even in the worst moments.
The creation of the Premier League and the Champions League took place in two critical situations: the painful consequences of the Heysel and Hillsborough massacres in English football and the defeat of UEFA in the Bosman case.
Far from regressing, football exponentially multiplied its popularity and commercial value.
On the other side is the logic of the business, which on this occasion has summoned two economic giants, each with its own peculiarities and arguments, and a megastar who instantly spotted the fabulous opportunity offered by the fight between PSG and the real Madrid.
During the last year, Mbappé has taken advantage of takeover bids to take his mercantile value, which was already very high, into the stratosphere.
Mbappé has given an impeccable business clinic.
He should be listed in gold letters in business schools.
He has acted with coldness, cunning and kind words, but indecipherable.
Every week he ran in his favor, as long as he was able to maintain the difficult balance of appearing in the media every day, standing out on the pitch and not getting confused in the midst of overwhelming pressure.
Como empresario, y no hay duda de que Mbappé es una empresa en movimiento, ha funcionado con la brillantez que le caracteriza como delantero, un
crack
en toda regla, autor de un mensaje que no se le puede escapar a nadie: si eres una estrella really, the power in football belongs to the footballer.
Less than a year ago, the 200 million offer that Real Madrid made for the acquisition of Mbappé was surprising.
Nothing like it had ever been seen in football.
A club was willing to pay a fortune for a player with only one year left on his contract.
More strangeness caused the rejection of PSG, which ran the risk of losing Mbappé in a few months without receiving a euro.
As now, generic interpretations of that impressive operation were resorted to.
There was talk of the deep disagreements between Florentino Pérez and Al-Khelaïfi over the issue of the European Super League and the arrogance of Qatar, owner of PSG, capable of rejecting an offer that no other club would have rejected.
In reality, it was about business, a category in which both parties are more than well versed.
And the third seems that too.
That offer from Madrid now acquires all its meaning.
It was the right time to do it.
The refusal allowed PSG a year of maneuver, which in the economic field was unlimited.
In the rejection, Real Madrid probably understood that they had lost much of their chances of signing the player this year.
Mbappé, who would have been delighted in 2021, has not done so in 2022, when it only depended on his decision.
Although it can be analyzed from any angle, the final point of this case defines the acute commercial knowledge of a player who has only signed a three-year contract.
In 2024, Mbappé will be 26 years old and will probably be in the same conditions to refine in the offices as he refines in the rival area.
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