The decision by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) to exclude Kylian Mbappe from their pre-season tour to Asia has been met with heavy criticism from France’s National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP), who have condemned the move.
The club’s decision to exclude him from the squad coincided with a contract standoff between the forward and the club continues.
Media reports suggest that PSG has put up the 24-year-old France captain for sale, following a deterioration in relations between the player and the club last month.
The forward, Mbappe, has already declared his intentions not to sign a contract extension, and his current deal is set to conclude at the end of the upcoming season, making him eligible to depart on a free transfer in June 2024.
PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi has made it clear that they will not entertain the possibility of Mbappe, the French top-flight’s highest goalscorer for five consecutive seasons, leaving the club without a transfer fee.
‘These players —- all of them —- must enjoy the same working conditions as the rest of the professional workforce,’ the UNFP, the main trade union for professional football players in France, said in a lengthy statement on Saturday.
‘The UNFP feels it will be useful to remind managers that putting pressure on an employee —- via the deterioration of their working conditions, for example —- to force them to leave or accept what the employer wants constitutes moral harassment.’
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‘The French law firmly condemns this sort of harassment.’
‘So, yes, the UNFP reserves the right to take civil and criminal action against any club that behaves in this way,’ the statement said.
While PSG’s stronghold in Ligue 1 is evident with nine titles in the last 11 seasons, they have yet to replicate that level of success in the UEFA Champions League.
In spite of their considerable financial backing and investments in the squad, the Parisian club has yet to lay claim to the UEFA Champions League, a trophy they have yet to lift the prestigious trophy.
PSG is grappling with a difficult choice of whether to let Mbappe’s contract run down to its final year and risk not recouping their investment in him.
PSG made a record-breaking transfer in 2017, shelling out 180 million euros (equivalent to 200.2 million dollars) to bring Mbappe to the club from AS Monaco.
There have been strong links between Mbappe and Real Madrid, the record 14-time European champions, fueling speculation about a potential move.