France: French Footballer Kylian Mbappe has announced that he will be leaving Paris Saint-Germain after an “adventure” with the team ends in a few weeks.
“This is my last year at Paris Saint-Germain. … I will play my last match at the Parc des Princes this Sunday,” the 25-year-old said in a video posted on the social media platform X on Friday.
After Sunday’s match, which will be their final home game of the season against Toulouse, PSG will collect the Ligue 1 title, their tenth in the previous twelve seasons.
Borussia Dortmund knocked Luis Enrique’s team from the Champions League this week in the semifinals. A shocking 2-0 aggregate loss was sealed with a 1-0 home loss in Tuesday’s second leg.
Following the loss, Mbappe’s seven-year tenure at PSG will come to an end without ever having won Europe’s premier club trophy, meaning he will not receive the send-off he had planned for in the Champions League final at Wembley on June 1.
Mbappe quietly notified PSG, which is owned by Qatar, in February that he intended to leave when his contract expired at the end of the current season.
The 25-year-old hasn’t revealed his future plans to the public, but it seems inevitable that he will end up at Real Madrid.
“It’s a lot of emotions, many years where I had the chance and the great honour to be a member of the biggest French club, one of the best in the world. It allowed me to arrive here, to have my first experience in a club with a lot of pressure, to grow as a player, of course, by being alongside some of the best in history, some of the greatest champions,” Mbappe said.
“It’s hard, and I never thought it would be this difficult to announce that, … but I think I needed this, a new challenge, after seven years.”
Mbappe has scored 43 goals this season in all competitions, 26 of which have come in Ligue 1. He did not score in either leg of the Dortmund match.
He will still aim to earn another medal in the French Cup final and add to his club record total of 255 goals for PSG. In his seven years at his local team, Mbappe has already won six Ligue 1 titles, three French Cups, and the now-defunct League Cup twice.
Following Sunday’s match, PSG will play away games against relegation-threatened Metz and Nice to finish their league campaign. Mbappe will end his career with the team on May 25 in the French Cup final in Lille.
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