How FC Barcelona’s Players Celebrated Mbappe’s PSG Contract Renewal

FC Barcelona’s players celebrated Kylian Mbappe’s decision to stay at Paris Saint Germain with great enthusiasm.

On Saturday, the French wonderboy shocked the football world by renewing with his current club until 2025. This was because until just a couple of days ago, it had seemed certain he would leave the Parc des Princes as a free agent on June 30 and sign for Barca’s greatest rival in Real Madrid.

While Los Blancos are yet to comment on the u-turn from the player that has rejected them twice now in a five-year period, after Mbappe chose PSG over the 13-time Champions League winners when leaving Monaco in 2017, La Liga president Javier Tebas has been infuriated by the development.

“What PSG are doing, by renewing Mbappe using large amounts of money (who knows where it comes from), after losses of €700mm ($739mn) in the last two seasons and a salary bill over €600m ($633mn), is an insult to football”, the 59 -year-old balked on Twitter, while sharing images of Mbappe and PSG’s Qatari owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi – who Tebas said is “as dangerous to football as the (European) Super League.”

Not sharing such pessimism was the FC Barcelona changing room, however, according to As.

When Mbappe’s decision was made official, in a final home match of the season where the 23-year-old scored a hat trick against Metz, the Barca squad’s WhatsApp group is said to have “literally caught fire”, “with comments of all kinds, some of major surprise, despite the fact that the change of script had become very evident in recent days”.

As say that reactions from the Blaugran’s charges were “more sarcastic and ironic” above all, but some were “openly euphoric”.

“The Mbappe thing is almost like a title,” one Camp Nou heavyweight is said to have written, in a message received with applause and various emojis of happiness.

Furthermore, Barca players were so eager to learn what Mbappe planned to do with his future that they even contacted his current teammates and their former colleagues Lionel Messi and Neymar to see if they had any information, only to be told “no idea” by the South Americans.

But rest assured, Mbappe not donning the famous white shirt of the enemy is indeed cause for celebration in Catalonia. And with Erling Haaland also opting to head to Manchester City instead of the Bernabeu, Barca are safe for a few years now in not facing a Madrid armed with either one of the next generation superstars.