A Paris labour court on Tuesday ordered Paris St Germain to pay Kylian Mbappe 60 million euros ($70.6 million) in unpaid salary and bonuses, bringing a partial end to one of the most acrimonious disputes in French football.
The ruling followed months of legal wrangling after the France striker took PSG to court over earnings he said were withheld for April, May and June 2024, shortly before he left the Ligue 1 club to join Real Madrid on a free transfer.
"We are satisfied with the ruling. This is what you could expect when salaries went unpaid," Mbappe’s lawyer Frederique Cassereau told reporters.
The court found that PSG had failed to pay three months of Mbappe's salary, an ethics bonus and a signing bonus due under his employment contract.
Those sums were recognised as due by two decisions of the French Professional Football League (LFP) in September and October 2024, and the judges said PSG had not produced any written agreement showing Mbappe had waived his entitlement.
The judges rejected PSG’s arguments that Mbappe should forfeit his unpaid wages entirely, but also dismissed several of the player’s additional claims, including allegations of concealed work, moral harassment and breach of the employer’s duty of safety.
The court did not view Mbappe’s fixed-term contract as a permanent one, a decision that limited the scale of potential compensation related to dismissal and notice pay.
LABOUR LAW APPLIES TO EVERYONE
"This judgment confirms that commitments entered into must be honoured. It restores a simple truth: even in the professional football industry, labour law applies to everyone," Mbappe's legal team said in a statement.
"Mr Mbappe, for his part, scrupulously respected his sporting and contractual obligations for seven years, right up to the final day."
PSG had argued that Mbappe acted disloyally by concealing for nearly a year his intention not to renew his contract, preventing the club from securing a transfer fee similar to the 180 million euros they paid to sign him from AS Monaco in 2017. Mbappe’s representatives said the dispute concerned the strict application of French labour law and unpaid remuneration, rather than transfer policy.