Mbappé Wins Legal Battle as Court Orders PSG to Pay €60m in Unpaid Wages
Kylian Mbappé’s long and uneasy separation from Paris St-Germain has finally reached a legal conclusion, not with the explosive outcome many expected, but with a ruling that still carries deep significance for both player and club.
A French court has ordered PSG to pay their former striker 60 million euros in unpaid salary and bonuses, bringing closure to a dispute that had lingered over French football for more than two years. The amount is far smaller than the 263 million euros Mbappé originally claimed, yet the judgement confirmed that PSG failed to honour key financial obligations during the final months of his contract.
At the heart of the case was a breakdown in trust. Mbappé argued that PSG stopped paying him between April and June 2024 and withheld bonuses that were written into his deal. The court agreed, ruling that three months of salary, an ethics bonus and a signing bonus remained unpaid. For Mbappe and his legal team, that recognition mattered as much as the figure itself.
We are satisfied with this ruling. This is what you could expect when salaries went unpaid,” his lawyer, Frederique Cassereau, said after the decision.
PSG, meanwhile, had gone on the offensive. The European champions countersued the now Real Madrid star for 240 million euros, accusing him of damaging the club financially and acting disloyally by not revealing his intention to leave sooner. They also sought compensation linked to a failed 300 million euros transfer to Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal in 2023, a move Mbappé declined.
The dispute was rooted in the summer of 2023, when the 2018 World Cup winner refused to extend his contract and rejected the Saudi offer. PSG responded by excluding him from their pre-season tour of Asia and leaving him out of the opening match of the 2023-24 season.
While he was later reintegrated, the forward believed he had been sidelined deliberately. The club maintained that his return followed an agreement in which Mbappé would give up part of his end-of-contract payments to ease PSG’s financial burden, a claim his representatives dismissed as fiction during the November hearing.
In a statement, Mbappe’s legal team stressed the wider meaning of the verdict. They said it reaffirmed a simple principle: even in elite football, contracts must be respected and labour law applies to everyone. They also emphasised that Mbappe fulfilled his duties to PSG until his final day at the club.
The ruling arrives after the end of an era. Mbappé spent seven seasons in Paris, first arriving from Monaco in 2017. He became PSG’s all-time leading scorer with 256 goals in 308 appearances and collected 15 trophies along the way. His final season was among his most prolific, with 44 goals in 48 matches.
Last summer, he left the Parc des Princes quietly, joining Real Madrid on a free transfer. The move closed one chapter of his career but left unresolved tensions behind. Now, with the court’s decision, the noise has finally softened.
It may not be the staggering payday once imagined, but for Mbappé, the judgement offers validation. For PSG, it is a reminder that even football’s biggest institutions are not above the rules that govern the sport’s workforce.