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Kylian Mbappe will be the surprise guest of French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday evening, just weeks after informing Paris Saint-Germain that he will leave the club at the end of the summer.
The French captain has been the star player for the Ligue 1 series champions since moving to the Parc des Princes in 2018, but has long been linked with a blockbuster move to Real Madrid.
The 25-year-old has agreed a move to the Bernabeu with the LaLiga side after years of ties, but neither PSG nor Real Madrid have shared a formal statement announcing the player’s decision.
Mail Sport reported last week that the World Cup winner will take a huge pay cut if he joins Carlo Ancelotti’s squad, as he currently earns an eye-watering net £21.4 million (€25 million) per season in the French capital.
But although President Macron has previously tried to influence Mbappé’s decision to leave his home country Le ParisienTuesday night’s affair will see the player invited to a dinner in honor of the visiting Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
Kylian Mbappe (right) is a guest of French President Emmanuel Macron (left) on Tuesday.
The Paris Saint-Germain star will be received at the Elysee Palace weeks after deciding to leave the club
Macron previously tried to tempt Mbappé to stay with the serial winners of Ligue 1
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In addition to Mbappe, the dinner will feature PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who heads the club’s Qatar Sports Investments ownership group.
Sheikh Tamim is said to have been invited to the capital by the French Prime Minister in an attempt to support negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
At the end of last season, Mbappe was quick to deny that Macron had played any role in trying to convince him to stay at the French club, after the forward sent a letter to PSG in June expressing his decision not to renew his contract explained. expires this year.
‘What influence does the president have? About my career today, in 2023, none,” Mbappe told reporters ahead of France’s European Championship qualifying round later that month.
‘He wants me to stay in Paris, my goal is to stay (for next season). We’re on the same wavelength.”
Macron – whose term ends in 2027 due to France’s constitutional two-term limit – previously shared that he had spoken to Mbappé in 2022 about his future as a player in his country’s top flight.
“Yes, it is true that I had a conversation with Kylian Mbappé before he made a final decision on his future,” Macron said in June that year.
Also invited is PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who heads the Qatar Sports Investment ownership group
Tuesday evening’s dinner is in honor of visiting Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani
The French Prime Minister previously tried to console Mbappe after his World Cup final defeat in Doha
‘In it I merely advised him, in a completely informal way, to stay in France. “I believe it is my responsibility as president to defend the country when called upon in an informal and friendly manner.”
Later that year, Macron was keen to console the PSG star after France lost the World Cup final to Argentina in Qatar, revealing what he had said to the player as he collected his second medal.
“I told him that he is only 23, that he was the World Cup top scorer, that he has won a World Cup, that he has been to a final,” Macron said. ‘I was just as sad as he was.
“I told him he made us very proud, and in the end we lost a football match, we were so close. That’s how it works in sports.’
But a dejected Mbappe appeared keen to shrug off his president’s awkward overtures and appeared to give Macron a blank during the post-match presentation.
