Zlatan was RIGHT! Ibrahimovic predicted Mbappe’s PSG demise precisely

Robin Bairner

• 29 Jul 2023 12:37 BST
• 3 min read

Zlatan Ibrahimovic may have recently retired from professional football, but if the PSG legend’s assessment of the Kylian Mbappe transfer saga is anything to go on, the Swede has a future in punditry.

Mbappe has seen his legacy at PSG collapse in a matter of weeks, with the France international superstar going to war with the club over his contract. He is refusing to take out an option to extend his deal until 2025, which has forced the Ligue 1 champions to put him up for sale against his wishes.

He is currently in Paris training with the other undesirables in the PSG squad while the first team tour Japan and South Korea, though they are struggling without the forward, losing 3-2 to Cerezo Osaka on Friday, with former Man Utd midfielder Shinji Kagawa getting a late winner.

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Interest has come from the Saudi Pro League and the Premier League, but the odds are that Mbappe will join Real Madrid, with the Spanish press even hinting a deal could be completed this summer.

It has been a complete meltdown between the player and the club – but Ibrahimovic predicted the chaos back in November, around six months after Mbappe extended his contract.

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’Mbappe made himself bigger than PSG’

He was asked by Canal+ if the decision to hand the forward a new deal was the right one.

Ibrahimovic replied: “For who, for himself? No. For PSG? Yes. He made the right choice for PSG, not for himself, because he put himself in the position where he is bigger than the club, and the club gave him the keys to everything.

“You are never bigger than your club, but when a child becomes strong, he can easily produce income, so his parents become lawyers, agents, coaches. That’s the problem, and when that happens you lose control of who you are and your identity.

“With this new generation the parents think they have become stars, they even talk in the newspapers, but who do they think they are?”

Ibrahimovic was previously PSG’s leading all-time scorer following a spell with the club from 2012-16, but he has subsequently been overtaken by both Edinson Cavani and Mbappe, who now holds the record with 212.