Culture

Mbappe leaves PSG as their greatest talent – but not universally loved

Published

2 years ago

May 14, 2024

Mbappe leaves PSG as their greatest talent – but not universally loved

In the end, Kylian Mbappe’s farewell to the Parc des Princes echoed his time at Paris Saint-Germain.

There was one more goal, another trophy and one step closer to another record — the first player in French football history to win the top-flight Golden Boot in six consecutive seasons.

There was a tifo put together by the club’s ultras in the Auteuil stand before kick-off to honour his legacy — an image of his trademark celebration, arms folded. There was also a banner, stating: “Child of the Parisian banlieue, you became a PSG legend.”

But this game was not a full celebration of his seven years in Paris. Yes, there were songs lauding him, but also a few boos and whistles before kick-off when his name was read out. The night would end with a trophy lift but also in a defeat to Toulouse, only PSG’s second loss of the campaign. Luis Enrique labelled it their worst performance of the season.

😳 Les sifflets du Parc des Princes à l’annonce du nom de Kylian Mbappé.#PSGTFC pic.twitter.com/FOhSczZEPQ
— Prime Video Sport France (@PVSportFR) May 12, 2024
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Considering the impact Mbappe has made on PSG, his send-off was underwhelming. The main focus of the evening was on the title win rather than Mbappe’s goodbye. PSG celebrated their 12th Ligue 1 triumph, an achievement that brings clear daylight at the summit of French football, now two clear of Marseille and Saint-Etienne. It was also the club’s 50th major trophy. It was greeted with a glitzy party, orchestrated by celebrated Parisian composer Thomas Roussel.

Mbappe’s announcement — made in a four-minute video on Friday via his social media channels — was just too short notice for much else. There was no concurrent statement or post from the club. They were caught by surprise.

GO DEEPER

Mbappe will leave PSG – what does this mean for him, the club and Real Madrid?

But Mbappe could not depart PSG without clarification before the club’s final home game of the season. The weeks of innuendos about his future could not drag on beyond that. He has not revealed his destination, which all in Paris expect to be Real Madrid, but he did confirm that, this time, it really was goodbye.

How he would be received by the Parc des Princes, for the final time, was always going to be a point of focus. Would supporters cheer him? On the face of it, not hailing the club’s greatest goalscorer might seem outlandish, but this is PSG and this is Mbappe, and the last seven years of off-field drama were hardly likely to have no impact.

His goodbye video had hints of that; Mbappe thanked nearly everyone at the club, including all of his former coaches. There was no reference, though, to club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, nor former sporting director Antero Henrique.

Kylian Mbappe and the PSG squad celebrate their Ligue 1 title win (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

This past season alone will have contributed to that. After informing the club that he wished to leave at the end of his contract, instead of triggering an option to extend it by a further year, he was told by PSG that he had to extend his deal or be sold. He was then unceremoniously dumped into the ‘bomb squad’, the group of transfer-listed undesirables, and omitted from the club’s pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea.

It was just the latest episode of the Mbappe-PSG soap opera. In 2022, he seemed set to sign for Real Madrid but did a late U-turn and signed a lucrative contract. A year previously, the summer was dominated by speculation about his future. So much of his spell at the club has, to an extent, felt like one very long goodbye. That can be tiresome.

The brilliance of Kylian Mbappe

Mbappe may well have been aware of that. On Friday, after his announcement video, Mbappe attended a barbecue with the club’s ultras at the Parc des Princes. From the outside, it looked like an act of goodwill before his departure. Last season, Mbappe was part of a team that was heckled as they received their medals for the Ligue 1 title, but he avoided the worst of it and his relationship has been rebuilt over time.

Throughout this season, he has not been heckled by the ultras, despite the off-field speculation. On Sunday, there were some loud whistles before kick-off but after full time, during the trophy lift, he was afforded a triple name call from matchday announcer Michel Montana. There was also the tifo after the warm-up. Mbappe went over to greet the ultras and watched as the tifo was raised in front of him. It was accompanied by Mbappe chants.

A giant tifo depicting Mbappe is raised before kick-off last night (Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images)

That was fitting because, despite everything, PSG will still remember him as their best-ever Parisian. He was born in Bondy, on the outskirts of Paris, and returned to the capital to break a whole host of records for the club, all before his 26th birthday.

His goal against Toulouse took him to 256 for the club, extending his position as the club’s all-time leading goalscorer. For PSG, he also has the most goals in Europe, the most hat-tricks, the most ‘doubles’ and the most goals in a single game (five). He has helped France win the World Cup, scored in successive World Cup finals, including one hat-trick, has won the tournament’s Golden Boot, and has gone on to become the national team captain.

That is his sporting legacy and fans will remember him for all of that, too. His goal on Sunday was a prime example, with a burst of incomprehensible pace, combined with sublime control and an ice-cool finish — but he also played in an era at PSG that won’t be remembered as favourably.

Mbappe celebrates his last league goal for PSG, against Toulouse (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

It has been a time of politics, player power and, fundamentally, unfulfilled ambitions for the club in the Champions League. It is a period that ended with disillusionment, a sentiment defined by fan protests last summer, which is now beginning to dissipate as the club pivot away from superstar players towards a new era and a new identity.

Over time, Mbappe will surely be remembered more fondly, as arguably their best-ever talent and a club icon.

Right now, though, PSG and their supporters are impatient to usher in a new chapter.

Fans will look back with fondness at his greatness but, as Sunday illustrated, memories of the off-the-field noise will linger. The sentiment that greeted his farewell is not entirely affectionate despite all that has been achieved.

(Top photo: Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

Related Topics:Featured France la liga Ligue 1 Paris Saint-Germain premier league Real Madrid soccer

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Culture

Video: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

Published

20 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Video: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

new video loaded: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

To capture Jane Austen’s brief life and enormous impact, editors at The New York Times Book Review assembled a sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness she has brought to our lives.

By Jennifer Harlan, Sadie Stein, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Edward Vega

December 18, 2025

Culture

Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

Published

3 days ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.

Culture

Revisiting Jane Austen’s Cultural Impact for Her 250th Birthday

Published

3 days ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Revisiting Jane Austen’s Cultural Impact for Her 250th Birthday

On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.

Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”

With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”

How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.

By ‘A Lady’

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)

Where the Magic Happened

Janice Chung for The New York Times

Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.

An Iconic Accessory

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.

Austen Onscreen

Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.

Jane Goes X-Rated

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.

A Lady Unmasked

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”

Wearable Tributes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.

The Austen Literary Universe

Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times

On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)

A Botanical Homage

Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.

Aunt Jane

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.

Cultural Currency

Steve Parsons/Associated Press

In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.

In the Trenches

During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”

Baby Janes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.

The Austen Industrial Complex

Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times

Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.

Around the Globe

Goucher College Special Collections & Archives, Alberta H. and Henry G. Burke Collection; via The Morgan Library & Museum

Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.

Playable Persuasions

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.

#SoJaneAusten

The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.

Bonnets Fit for a Bennett

Peter Flude for The New York Times

For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.

Most Ardently, Jane

The Morgan Library & Museum

Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”

Stage and Sensibility

Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.

Austen 101

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”