Champions League
Article reserved for subscribers
Against the backdrop of the star striker’s potential departure for Madrid, Paris’ round of 16 against Real in the Champions League on Tuesday evening crystallizes the wandering of the group, which recruited a losing Messi.
Half-sleep for months, Paris Saint-Germain will start their season this Tuesday evening at the Parc des Princes by receiving Real Madrid from Karim Benzema for the account of the knockout stages of the Champions League and the case comes under the obsessive patronage of memory and belonging, or rather the inverse reflection of these two notions: forgetting.
Of course, it revolves around the Parisian striker Kylian Mbappé. Ten days ago, caught under the heavy fire of rumors announcing an agreement concluded between the Parisian striker and the merengue club for next season and a few following ones, the Bondynois landed in front of a microphone to deny: “No, my decision [de partir en Espagne à la fin de son bail parisien en juin, ndlr] is not taken. I think playing against Real Madrid [en Ligue des champions] changes a lot of things. Even though I’m free to go where I want right now, I’m not going to go talk to the opponent or do that kind of thing. I’m focused on winning this round of 16 against Real and then we’ll see what happens.”
“The biggest contract in the history of the club”
Earlier, his trainer, Mauricio Pochettino, had pushed in the same direction: “Kylian is a great professional. And a good boy, humanly speaking. He has a lot of love for the club, i…