Kylian Mbappe to Conclude PSG Career in French Cup Final 2024: Eyeing on Triumph and Glory
Kylian Mbappe is set to bid farewell to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) on Saturday, aiming to cap his illustrious stint with another trophy in the French Cup final against Lyon.
It will be Mbappe’s 308th and last game for his local team, which he signed a 180 million euro contract with in August 2017. Mbappe previously played for Monaco.
That is presuming the 25-year-old captain of France participates in the match in Lille. He missed PSG’s final two Ligue 1 games of the season, their 2-0 victory at Metz on Sunday and their 2-1 victory at Nice on May 15.
With PSG having already won the Ligue 1 championship, it appears that he was left out of those games in order to preserve his fitness for the Cup final. However, coach Luis Enrique has made it clear that he is not totally satisfied with his star player’s recent performance.
He declared last weekend, “This week we will see who is ready, who is not, and who has the most desire.”
“The French Cup final is very important for us.”
Mbappe has won a lot of awards during his time at PSG, at least at home.
He has contributed to the Qatar-owned team’s six Ligue 1 championships and two now-gone League Cup victories. He will be able to get his fourth French Cup winners’ medal if he defeats Lyon on Saturday.
Of course, though, his tenure at the Parc des Princes has also been tarnished by his inability to succeed in the Champions League—the competition that counts most.
In 64 games for Paris in Europe’s top club competition, Mbappe scored 42 goals, but PSG was unable to win the Cup throughout those seven years and has never done so.
In a game played behind closed doors during the height of the pandemic, PSG fell 1-0 to Bayern Munich in 2020 despite having made it all the way to the final in Lisbon thanks to Mbappe.
There were two more semi-final appearances from him, but he was deemed unfit and did not play in the second leg of the 2021 final four loss to Manchester City. Additionally, he did not perform well in the crucial moments in this season’s Borussia Dortmund loss.
After leaving Paris and France, Mbappe is anticipated to move on to Real Madrid, where he will hopefully win the Champions League for the first time.
Also Read: FA Cup Final 2023: Manchester City’s Victory in Historic Clash Against Manchester United
Legacy
What kind of legacy will he leave in his native land?
Since making his breakthrough as a raw youngster in a talented Monaco squad that won Ligue 1 in 2017, Mbappe has been a superstar.
As Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane, and Thierry Henry were in the past, he is a legend in France and will remain such even if he plays club football abroad. But with PSG having the chance to win both the French Cup and the Ligue 1 title in the same season for the first time since the Covid-shortened 2019–20 campaign, he will be desperate to leave with one more trophy.
In the French Cup finals, Mbappe’s individual record hasn’t always been stellar, despite his three victories. He was sent off in the 2019 final, which PSG lost to Rennes on penalties, and he sustained an injury in the first half of the 2020 final, which Paris won over Saint-Etienne.
However, Mbappe never fails to shine in the big moment. This will be not only his farewell match for PSG but also his first final since the 2022 World Cup, in which he stunned Argentina with a hat-trick against Lionel Messi’s team in Doha.
But Mbappe and PSG run the risk of not having the entire game against Lyon go their way.
Although Luis Enrique’s team won the championship with ease, Lyon’s incredible comeback from the bottom of the league in early December cannot be overlooked.
After taking over an injured team, Pierre Sage led them to European qualification in just five months.
Since the Stade de France has been reserved for the 2018 Olympics, this is the first time the final has been held outside of Paris and the surrounding area. Given the identities of the finalists, the 50,000-seat Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille seemed like the most obvious choice for the game’s location.
