What happens when a player takes control of a club? Kylian Mbappé is a 23-year-old striker. In May, he signed a three-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain that gives him 500 million kroner a year, plus one billion kroner just to sign. Even in the crazy world of football, this is crazy. But wait – there’s more. MIGHTY: In May, Kylian Mbappé signed a monster deal with PSG. He received one billion kroner just for signing. Photo: CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / Reuters Some reports claim that Mbappé will have a veto right with regard to the hiring of players and coaches. In that case, he will in practice become a playing sports director. Mbappé himself denies this. But what PSG is doing suggests that is true. Kylian’s favorites For now, PSG announces major changes. One day after Mbappé signed, they fired director Leonardo. Now everyone is waiting for coach Mauricio Pochettino to be thrown out the door. Large parts of the stable will be sold. According to the French sports newspaper L’Équipe, Mbappé has also given the green light to the sale of top colleague Neymar. STAR PLAYERS: Brazilian Neymar and Kylian Mbappé. Photo: Christophe Ena / AP Who is going in? PSG have already hired Luís Campos, a director Mbappé knows from his time in Monaco. As a coach, they first wanted Zinédine Zidane, one of Mbappé’s heroes, before they apparently got no. So if there are no clauses on the right of veto, there is no doubt that Mbappé has become a powerful figure in PSG – perhaps the most powerful. In football, it is the presidents and directors who will direct the show. How could a 23-year-old player end up with so much power? Prayer by Macron The answer is about an ace up his sleeve that more and more stars are either throwing on the table or threatening to play out. This is Bosmandommen. In 1995, the Belgian Jean-Marc Bosman won a lawsuit that allowed him to find a new team after his contract expired, without his old club being able to demand a transfer fee. This gave players more freedom to change teams, and a powerful weapon in the wage negotiations. Few have used it as effectively as Mbappé. For more than a year we have read that he was going to Real Madrid. Rumors were everywhere. This was a gigantic transition: The golden boy who will dominate football together with Erling Braut Haaland for the next decade, was to change clubs for free. For PSG, it was a crisis. Sporting was only part of the story. PSG is a prestigious project for Qatar, and great emphasis is placed on signing the biggest names. When they beat Lionel Messi last year, it was like a trophy in itself. A WIN: PSG managed to get the player who many believe is among the best football players of all time. Photo: BERTRAND GUAY / AFP So losing Mbappé to a rival like Real Madrid, just months before the World Cup in Qatar, was unthinkable. This was also a disaster for French football, and French President Emmanuel Macron is said to have intervened to persuade Mbappé to stay in the country. But Mbappé waited and waited. PSG became more and more anxious. Towards the end, they could just as easily have given him a blank sheet and asked him to write down what he wanted. Freedom and money Mbappé is not alone in using this strategy. Across Europe, players are now using the same method to force transitions and fatten up contracts. The most normal thing is that they go for free. The examples are more and bigger than ever, among them Antonio Rüdiger (who has left Chelsea) Paulo Dybala (Juventus), Paul Pogba (Manchester United) and Ángel Di María (PSG). If you remove questions about loyalty, there are few reasons why they should not do this. If they go for free, they are almost free to choose their next team. Since their new club does not have to pay anything for them, more money can go to salaries and bonuses. So the players get more power themselves – and get richer in the same sling. This mostly applies to those who only have a few months left on the contract. But this summer we see that even those who have more than one year left, use the same trick. With time on his side In Germany, for example, the Polish goal machine Robert Lewandowski has told the world that he wants to leave Bayern Munich immediately. He has a contract until the summer of 2023, so Bayern can put their foot down. They can say, “You are our player, you are under contract. Do your job ». WANTS TO GO AWAY: Poland and Bayern player Robert Lewandowski. Photo: Swen Pf’rtner / AP But Lewandowski has time on his side. Generally, clubs should renew their contracts at least 18 months before they expire. The longer they wait, the more the risk of losing the player for free increases, which strengthens the agent’s negotiating position. Lewandowski knows that if Bayern do not let him go now, they will lose him for free next year. And as with PSG, this is not just a financial blow for Bayern, but a humiliating loss of prestige. The big clubs should have the best players. They should definitely not lose them. And they should at least not do it for free. The saga of Salah Liverpool has tasted the same. They have three profiled strikers with one year left on their contracts. The saga of Mohamed Salah just continues, while Sadio Mané wants to leave now, and can go to Bayern. Here we are talking about two of the world’s biggest teams. If even these do not have control over their stars, then what can the teams do? The trend is likely to continue. It used to be controversial to change clubs for free, but the more normal it becomes, the more it will tempt others. Rocco Commisso, the owner of Fiorentina, had to sell striker Dušan Vlahović cheaply in January because he refused to extend. Commisso is convinced that Vlahović and the agent came to Fiorentina with a plan to move on for free. If that happens then the clubs will have to expect to lose their stars for nothing. But there are some methods they can use. The Haaland solution One is to enter into a buyout clause with players they know will want away later. Dortmund did this with Haaland, who recently went to Manchester City for 750 million kroner. This was a compromise that suited all parties. Since the sum was low for a player like him, Haaland was given the freedom to choose his next club. And Dortmund did not lose him for free. SUCCESS: Erling Braut Haaland’s transfer from Red Bull Salzburg to Borussia Dortmund could hardly have gone better. Photo: LEON KUEGELER / Reuters Clubs can also enter into long-term contracts. Haaland signed for five years at City, while Liverpool gave their new signing Darwin Núñez a six-year deal. A third method is to get replacements early, and again Liverpool are a good example. They have long known that they could lose their attacking trio for free. So two years ago they picked up Diogo Jota. This winter they bought Luis Díaz, and yesterday Núñez was ready. Now they can sell Mané and do well. They must not give Salah whatever he wants, as PSG did with Mbappé, because they have three new top-class strikers. Maybe it’s a lesson to learn for other clubs. It has long been important to find the best way to get stars. Now the same is true for how to lose them.
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