French superstar Kylian Mbappe has been reinstated in Paris Saint-Germain’s first team, the football club has said.

It has been a rocky build-up to the new Ligue 1 season for champions PSG, with Mbappe left out of new coach Luis Enrique’s team for Saturday’s underwhelming opening goalless draw against Lorient.

After being sidelined for several weeks amid an ongoing contract dispute, Mbappe watched from the Parc des Princes stands.

But the club’s prize asset is now back in the fold, for the time being at least.

“After very constructive and positive discussions between Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbappe before the PSG-Lorient match, the player was reinstated in first team training this morning,” PSG said in a statement on Sunday.

Last month Al-Hilal made a 300-million-euro ($328m) bid for Mbappe, though the striker reportedly refused to meet with officials from the team.

The France captain has refused to sign an extension to his PSG deal, meaning he can leave for free next year, with Real Madrid long seen as his preferred destination.

Qatari-owned PSG want to sell him now and bring in a significant transfer fee for a player who cost 180 million euros ($198m) from Monaco in 2017.

“The position is very clear. If Kylian wants to stay, he must sign a new contract. We can’t let the best player in the world today leave for free. It’s impossible,” PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi said last month.

Mbappe had not been allowed train with the first team and played only one of PSG’s five warm-up games and was not invited to the pre-season tour in Japan and South Korea.

Source: Al Jazeera 

BDST: 1017 HRS, AUG 14, 2023
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