French journalist Philippe Auclair joined The Football Show on Monday to discuss Kylian Mbappe.
Kylian Mbappe is now the highest paid football player in the world.
In history too.
PSG opened up their bank vault and gave Mbappe everything he could ask for to prevent him from joining Real Madrid. It means big changes for the club. Club President Leonardo is on his way out. Manager Mauricio Pochettino will follow him soon.
Mbappe has more power than any player has ever had. French sports journalist Philippe Auclair doesn't think change is a bad thing for PSG, but the money involved is alarming.
"We're looking at something which we have never looked at before," Auclair said.
"It's insane actually. We're talking net as well, which complicates things because in some countries you have gross salaries. Such as in England for example. In France and in Italy you talk about net salaries, so after tax. So you're talking a salary of €30 million net, a year.
"And you're talking about a signing-on fee which apparently is in the area of €130 million."
PSG and Manchester City have found domestic success by funneling huge money into their squads. But that wasn't supposed to be possible. Financial fair play rules were supposed to prevent teams from throwing money around as much as they wanted to.
So how is this deal possible?
"The rules have changed. The goalposts have been moved. First of all there was covid which led to the relaxing of financial fair play by FIFA. Then you've got the regulations of the French league which enable in fact owners to do this kind of thing.
"[French regulators] look at financial equilibrium, balance. So as long as the owner is willing to put in money and can make the books balance, that's fine. And UEFA has changed the FPF rules. Conveniently for PSG and Manchester City, they seem to be far more lax.
"So the age of financial fairplay, if it ever existed...this age is over."
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