Mbappe's wage saga

GM football fans. Route One here, and we’re covering Gundogan’s Barcelona exit, Kylian Mbappé’s lost wages and much more.

STATS

Bundesliga 2024-25 Opta predictions

→ Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen are favourites to retain their title with a 49.2% projection to win the league.

→ Harry Kane is expected to miss out on another league trophy this season as Bayern Munich are projected to have a 21.7% chance of winning the Bundesliga this season.

 → Borrusia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Stuttgart are expected to join Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich in qualifying for the Champions League, while Bocum, Holstein Kiel and St. Pauli are projected to go down this season.

Plus…

• Phil Foden wins PFA Player of the Year and Cole Palmer wins the Young Player prize, and the PFA Team of the Year has been released (More)

• Match officials confirmed for the Premier League’s Matchday 2 (More)

• UEFA Champions League new format and new draw explained (More)

• Manchester United winger Antony has been cleared by Brazilian police over assault allegation (More)

• Wolves make a loan bid for Arsenal keeper Aaron Ramsdale (More)

PREMIER LEAGUE

Barcelona offloading Gundogan back to City

Ilkay Gundogan does not want to leave Barcelona but the German midfielder doesn’t want to be a hindrance to the club, per Relevo.

Despite scoring five goals and assisting 14 last season, Barcelona are forcing Gundogan out of the club to make (financial) room for their new ‘signing’ Dani Olmo.

Barcelona’s financial rule problems persist

The word on the street is that Barcelona are looking to sell or release players from their contracts in order to free up space on the wage bill for Olmo. Barcelona signed the Spanish forward in the summer for more than £50mn but he has not yet been registered with La Liga and missed the club’s season opener against Valencia last week.

Why? Spending caps. Barcelona are in excess of their annual spending cap and need to raise money in order to register Olmo with the league.

This is not the first time the Spanish giants have tried to get rid of players to reduce their wage bill - successfully and unsuccessfully:

• In 2022, Barcelona alleged that Frenkie de Jong’s contract had “irregularities” but sources close to the player said the club was putting pressure on the Netherlands midfielder to move club or accept a wage reduction.

• Most famously, Lionel Messi wanted to stay at Barcelona but the club ushered out their star man after it was not possible to register his wages in line with La Liga financial rules.

A return to the Premier League

The former Manchester City captain is now open to a return to his former club. According to one journalist, Gundogan personally called his former boss Pep Guardiola and asked if he would accept him back at City.

Yesterday, it was revealed that Guardiola was keen to accelerate the move.

Good timing: City are looking to bolster their squad before the end of the window following the sale of Julian Alvarez and Oscar Bobb’s leg fracture - and Guardiola has admitted to being open to a midfielder to take the load off Rodri.

POLL

HEAD START

😬 Raheem Sterling left out of Chelsea’s squad again. The England forward has not been included in Chelsea’s squad for Thursday’s Europa Conference League play-off first-leg against Servette. It is the second game in succession the 29-year-old England forward has not featured in a matchday squad. It’s not yet clear why he has been left out again. Since Sterling’s team released a statement about seeking clarity over why he was left out of the opening fixture, Italian giants Juventus have enquired about signing the winger.

🏟️ Barcelona have unveiled new images of the renovated Camp Nou. Barcelona haven’t played in the Camp Nou since May 2023, with the stadium undergoing a €1.5bn renovation. They currently play their home matches at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium located in Barcelona. The Catalan club expect to return to Camp Nou halfway through the 2024/25 season but only utilise 60% of the renovated stadium's 105,000 capacity. Renovations are expected to be completed by August 2026.

🤕 Club bans trendy shin pads after horror injury. A Peniston Church youth player suffered a double leg break after wearing miniature shin pads - a “trend” in the Premier League. Under FA’s rules, shin pads must provide a “reasonable degree of protection” although there is no rule specification on size. Club officials said they accepted the small pads may not have been directly responsible for the leg break, but wanted larger guards to be used across all age groups.

UNPAID WAGES

Kylian Mbappé contacts UEFA to claim €55mn in unpaid wages

Kylian Mbappé has contacted the legal committee of the Professional Football League (LFP) and UEFA to retrieve €55mn in unpaid wages from Paris Saint Germain, per Le Monde.

It’s thought that the supposed unpaid wages are a result of the last three months of Mbappé’s salary and his ‘ethical bonus’ - as well as part of another signing bonus.

PSG’s defence: The French giants dispute Mbappé’s claim, arguing that he made “commitments” to renounce the payments if he left the club as a free agent this summer.

Serious sanctions against PSG

If the accusations are found to be true, the LFP legal committee has the power to issue a recruitment ban on the club. It’s also possible that UEFA could challenge PSG’s UEFA Club license - granted to clubs in European competitions. 

The reigning French champions must prove that they don’t owe any money from before February 28 this year, or risk being ejected from the Champions League group stage draw.

The spotlight is on player protection

Players are more prone to missing salaries than you might think:

• A record number of football players made claims for unpaid wages at the end of the 2020-21 season, with 89% of the 441 applications coming from Europe.

• In 2023, FIFA’s website detailed over 50 labour disputes involving Saudi clubs.

With this rise in unpaid wages, FIFA and Fifpro - the world players’ union - set up a global fund to protect players’ salaries in 2020. The fund provides financial support to players who have not been - and will not be - paid by their club.

The problem is… the committee didn’t have players like Mbappé in mind when they pooled €14mn together for lost wages. But we’re sure Mbappé will be just fine.

AROUND THE FOOTBALL WORLD

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League: The 2024-25 transfer window is now expected to be the 4th highest of all time with £1.6bn already spent (More)

🇩🇪 German national team: Manuel Neuer, 38, wants to continue his career in the national team and return to the squad at the end of the year (More) / in German

🇺🇸 Women’s national team: US women’s soccer team returns to No. 1 in FIFA world rankings after a 12-month absence from the top of the rankings (More)

🇮🇹 Serie A: Juventus eased to a 3-0 victory against Cesc Fabregas’ newly-promoted Como in Thiago Motta’s first competitive game in charge (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Championship: Former Leeds United, Hibernian and Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom appointed as Preston North End manager (More)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Jamie Vardy. Without playing a minute of Leicester City’s underwhelming pre-season campaign in which they lost three of their four games and scored only two goals, Vardy made himself available to start in their return to the top flight.

Vardy’s goal to make it level with Spurs was his 137th Premier League goal - putting him 15th in the all-time scoring charts despite him only making his debut in the competition at the age of 27.

More impressively, it was his 103rd goal in the Premier League since turning 30 years old, which is 10 more than anyone else.

ROUTER’S VOICE

Yesterday, we asked you: Do you think this is Pep Guardiola's last season as Manchester City boss?

Routers voted that this will be Pep’s last season as Manchester City manager.

🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 👋 Yes, he's out the door... (69.7%)

🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 🙅 Nope, he's staying... (30.3%)

Your punditry takes:

•  👋 Steve B voted ‘Yes’: “A truly great manager who has already stayed for longer than I expected. This will be the longest he’s been in charge at one club and the urge to manage at international level may be too much to keep him at City.”

• 👋 Mickey voted ‘Yes’: “He has nothing else to achieve at City. After a long time in a job, you can get itchy feet or bored or just run out of energy so he's probably been thinking about leaving especially after watching Klopp leave.”

• 🙅 Tim M voted ‘No’: “He'll stay. He's an egomaniac!”

EXTRA TIME

Monday Night Football reveal their 2024/25 season predictions, who do you agree with?

When will Endrick make his La Liga debut?

How Brighton’s new manager sets up differently from Roberto De Zerbi.

Arsene Wenger reveals the physiological profile he believes is necessary to becoming a professional footballer.

Lieke Martens reveals a little secret to her PSG teammates.

Steve McClaren’s first interview as Jamaica’s head coach.

Ranking Every MLS Soccer Stadium in the USA and Canada.

Robbie Savage posts a compilation of his son’s goals this season for Reading.

Fantasy Premier League: FPL player price changes - rises, falls and top transfers for Gameweek 2.

Analysis: Unique Jamie Vardy reminds everyone what the Premier League has been missing.

GAME FACE ON

Question: Can you name Barcelona’s starting XI that won the 2015 Champions League?

Scroll below for the answer.

ON TODAY

FOOTBALL

Champions League Play-offs

• Dynamo Kyiv vs Salzburg (20:00 BST)

• Malmö vs Sparta (20:00 BST)

• Midtylland vs Slovan (20:00 BST)

• Young Boys vs Galatasaray (20:00 BST)

English FA Cup - Preliminary Round

• Exmouth vs Brixham (19:45 BST)

Scottish SWPL 1 - 1st Phase

• Celtic vs Motherwell (19:20 BST)

• Aberdeen vs Montrose (19:30 BST)

• Hibernian vs Dundee Utd (19:30 BST)

• Spartans vs Partick (19:45 BST)

• Glasgow City vs Hearts (20:00 BST)

• Rangers vs Queen’s Park (20:00 BST)

*EST -5. PST -8. CET +1. CST +8. JST +9.

Answer

Goalkeeper: ter Stegen

Defenders: Alba, Piqué, Mascherano, Alves

Midfielder: Iniesta, Busquets, Rakitić

Forwards: Neymar, Suárez, Messi