Kylian Mbappe’s legal team has appealed to both the French sports minister and UEFA, demanding that his former club, Paris Saint-Germain, pay him 55 million euros ($61.25 million) in unpaid wages.
On Thursday, they revealed that several of PSG’s accounts had been frozen.
“We’re going on the attack,” said Mbappe’s lawyer, Delphine Verheyden, during a press conference.
Despite the French League (LFP) ordering PSG to settle the amount last year, the French Football Federation ruled that Mbappe’s request was inadmissible due to an ongoing civil court case.
Now, Mbappe’s legal team has turned to a Paris court to freeze 55 million euros in PSG’s accounts.
“We have protectively seized the accounts of PSG, to the tune of 55 million euros, this morning,” Thomas Clay, one of Mbappe’s legal experts, said.
PSG said in October that it would be “forced to bring the case before the competent courts” while still trying to find an “amicable solution” with Mbappe.
“After hearing yet another fantastic story from a parallel universe today, PSG continues to fail to understand why Kylian Mbappe is not taking his case to the labor chamber, which is the only court competent to settle the dispute between him and his former club,” PSG said Thursday.
“His lawyers claim it’s because he’s not an employee like the others. PSG believes, on the contrary, that he is an employee like any other, and that he must respect the clear and repeated public and private commitments he made to his employer.
“All the procedures announced by Kylian Mbappe’s lawyers only serve to delay the resolution of the dispute by the labor chamber, before which PSG is ready to present all the facts, evidence, and testimony proving the existence of an agreement, or better still, by means of the transaction that PSG has been calling for over a year.”
Mbappe’s lawyers said Thursday they would submit their case to the labor chamber.
“The club reaffirms its desire to reach an amicable outcome, as it has always been in favor of doing, despite the repeated signs of bad faith and the player’s total refusal of any mediation,” PSG added.
In January last year, Mbappe said he had made an agreement with PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi that would “protect all parties and preserve the club’s serenity for the challenges ahead.”
Mbappe became PSG’s all-time top scorer during his seven-year stay in the capital, but the 26-year-old joined Real Madrid as a free agent last year.
PSG had also said that Mbappe had refused an offer from the LFP to mediate the issue.
Another lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sur, said they had filed a complaint for harassment, claiming PSG pressured Mbappe to extend his contract in 2023, one year before it ended.
The Ligue 1 champions, however, argue that Mbappe’s contract was “legally amended” and that the forward had reneged on commitments when he left the Paris club to join Real Madrid.