Mbappe and PSG go to court as Real Madrid star now demands €260m compensation

FT Desk

• Updated: 18 Nov 2025 06:16 CST
• 6 min read

Nieuws

Kylian Mbappe and Paris Saint-Germain officially went to court in the French capital on Monday.

The current Real Madrid star is seeking compensation from unpaid wages and bonuses from his former club.

Trouble had been brewing between the France international star and PSG long before he completed his controversial free transfer to Los Blancos in 2024. A year earlier, he had attempted to force a move to the Bernabeu club, but he was unsuccessful and started to shatter his relationship with his hometown club, and president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, in the process.

Ultimately, Mbappe completed his long-anticipated move to Spain, but the bad blood with the PSG hierarchy remains.

He was initially seeking €55m in damages but has now increased his claim to €260m while PSG have responded with a €440m counter-claim of their own.

According to a recent report by ESPN, Mbappe, who did not attend the hearing, believes PSG “owe him that money because his fixed-term contract should be reclassified as a permanent one.”

If his contract is classified as permanent, he would be eligible for unfair dismissal compensation as well as unpaid bonuses and a severance payment.

"Kylian Mbappe is not asking for anything beyond what the law provides; he is simply seeking the enforcement of his legal rights, as any employee would," the player's advisers said in a released statement.

PSG’s colossal counter claim is for a “loss of opportunity” as the player left as a free agent instead of agreeing a €300 million switch to Al Hilal in 2023.

"Before the court, the club presented evidence showing that the player acted disloyally by concealing for nearly 11 months, between July 2022 and June 2023, his decision not to extend his contract, thereby depriving the club of any possibility of arranging a transfer," PSG said in a statement.

"The player then challenged an agreement concluded with the club in August 2023, which provided for a reduction in salary should he decide to leave on a free transfer, in order to preserve the club's financial stability following the exceptional investment made."

Kylian Mbappe’s troubled PSG exit

The trouble dates back to the summer of 2022, when Mbappe signed a new contract with PSG. Al-Khelaifi paraded the player with a shirt with 2025 emblazoned on the back, as the French club framed the agreement as a three-year deal. In fact, in an important piece of context, the striker only signed for two years plus the option of an additional one.

Two months later, a letter landed on Al-Khelaifi’s desk from Mbappe that indicated he had no intention of triggering that option. Chaos ensued.

In the summer of 2023, Mbappe was put on the transfer market and frozen out of PSG first-team training. Now comes the crux. PSG claim that as Mbappe was reintegrated into the team – it took him only 11 minutes to score after being frozen out – he agreed to forego bonus payments related to loyalty and images worth €55m.

There is, however, little evidence of this. PSG claim that a verbal agreement was struck between Mbappe and Al-Khelaifi in a private meeting.

The closest there is to any confirmation that a deal was actually struck came from comments that the striker made in the mixed zone following the Trophee des Champions clash with Toulouse.

He said: “The agreement I reached with the president last summer protects all the parties, regardless of my decision.”

By the end of the season, Mbappe was open about his agreement with Real Madrid, which was a deal long in the making and was formally concluded in July 2024. His exit from PSG, though, was only the start of a prolonged saga.

Hostilities step up

Mbappe’s beginning at Real Madrid was marked by numerous controversies, yet his clash with PSG is the one that continues.

By October 2024, a matter of weeks after leaving the Parc des Princes, he had already won a minor battle over his €55m claim with the French League (LFP).

"The club must pay him the salary he is claiming. This decision is not subject to appeal, but may be referred to the FFF [French Football Federation] Executive Committee," the LFP told Reuters (via ESPN).

PSG refused, setting in motion a sequence of events that has wound up with the issue becoming a matter for the legal system.

The club released a statement: "What is in debate, and will ultimately be heard before an appropriate tribunal, is that the original contract was legally amended in August 2023 relating to the 2024-25 season, and also fully recognised by the player including in January 2024 - until the player then decided to renege all his commitments upon leaving the club.

"As a matter of law and fact, the player has made clear, repeated public and private commitments that the club simply asks are honoured, with the player being afforded unprecedented benefits by the club over seven years in Paris.

"The club hopes these basic commitments will simply be respected, knowing that the club will be forced to have the player's bad faith judged by the competent courts if the player regrettably seeks to pursue this incomprehensibly damaging dispute, for himself and for French football, further."

Mbappe wants PSG banned from the Champions League

Tension between the parties has since escalated. Mbappe’s legal team was initially successful in having €55m of PSG’s accounts frozen through a court decision, but had this overturned at the end of May 2025.

A complaint was also filed against the Ligue 1 side for putting pressure on the player to sign the contract via “scandalous and indecent practices”. PSG denied this and while Mbappe’s camp withdrew, a judicial investigation remains underway.

L’Equipe reports that an appeal was even made by the player’s camp that Les Parisiens should not be allowed to play in the current edition of the Champions League due to UEFA regulations that stipulate that a club that fails to pay its employees should be frozen out.

PSG responded in May by making a counterclaim against Mbappe worth €98m in damages, claiming the player engaged in “deceptive behaviour” during contract negotiations. The club says it does not aim to recover the money but simply prove a point that the player’s claim is unfounded.

This was initially brushed aside by the lawyers of the Real Madrid star, who claimed that PSG have “no legal basis” for this.