🇫🇷 Kylian Mbappé just got a LOT richer

Merry Christmas everybody 🎄

Thank you to everyone who’s become a paid TLP member. I owe you an apology. I had an automation set up so that anyone who joined would receive a short series of welcome emails. I only discovered recently that it didn’t fire. A few of you emailed me to say you’d paid and hadn’t received any confirmation, which genuinely killed me.

Consider it a lesson in launching a membership during the busiest period of my life.

The new dawn of The Long Play starts on January 1st. As part of the new dawn, this newsletter will be moving to Substack. Emails will land exactly the same way but the host will be different. All paid member content will live inside Substack’s fantastic video platform. Keep an eye out for that over the next few weeks.

Today, we’re covering two things.

First, how Kylian Mbappé just got a whole lot richer. And second, how many millionaires were made in this year’s IPL auction!

Honestly, I wish Nasser Al-Khelaifi could be my Santa Claus! That man just hands out money to everyone.

Let’s get into it.

Paris Saint-Germain have been ordered to pay Kylian Mbappé €60 million in unpaid wages and bonuses.

What an insane sentence!

The dispute traces back to the summer of 2023.

Mbappé informed PSG that he would not trigger the optional final year in his contract, meaning his five-year deal would expire in June 2024.

That immediately created a nightmare scenario for Paris. They were about to lose the best and the most valuable player in the world… for nothing.

According to PSG, the negotiations around his next move ended with a “gentleman’s agreement” in August 2023 where two options were presented to him:

1. Extend the contract and allow us to sell you OR

2. Leave on a free transfer and give up certain financial entitlements

Those financial entitlements are important. The totalled to €60m and covered money that had already been earned under the contract including:

• Standard monthly salary amounts (that had been withheld)

• Deferred payments linked to earlier renewals

• Contractually agreed bonuses

Mbappé continued training, continued to play and continued to fulfil his duties. It’s difficult to remember back then but he was playing really well for Paris at that time through whilst all of this was happening around him.

As he always trained, PSG attempted to convert earned pay into a penalty for leaving on a free transfer.

You know what employment laws in France are like…

Kylian went to court claiming €263m in total. He was not realistically expecting to receive €263m but the claims included:

• Unpaid wages and bonuses

• Attempts to reclassify bonuses as guaranteed salary

• Psychological harassment linked to his exclusion from the squad

• Claims around undeclared work and reputational harm

PSG responded with a €440m countersuit, arguing Mbappé caused massive financial harm by leaving for free.

Legally, it was always weak, from both sides. The countersuit was dismissed in full.

Eventually, Paris were ordered to pay Kylian his money.

PSG are one of the most resourced clubs in world football. I find it insane that at the most critical moment, they relied on a “gentlemans agreement” to protect the biggest asset in world football.

I also find it bonkers how well Mbappé has played in his time at Real Madrid considering all of this was happening “above” him for the past two years.

Regardless, Kylian is an even richer man now than he was previously. And once again, the leverage that football players have continues to shine through.

It also finally curtails the Mbappé era in Paris. Interestingly, PSG have gone on to do better without Mbappé in their team excelling in the Champions League and the Club World Cup. Annoyingly for them the majority of those spoils will now go to their former player!

What a crazy circle.

Now, speaking of player leverage, last week the 2026 IPL auction took place in the Middle East and for the third year in a row, at least ten English players will play in the Indian T20 competition.

As usual, some English players were either retained or sold for huge amounts of money, reinforcing just how lucrative an era this is to be a professional cricketer.

The full list of English players can be seen below:

Jos Buttler was retained by the Gujarat Titans for ₹15.75 crore, earning him close to $1.8 million. Liam Livingstone, Jofra Archer and Phil Salt all also cleared the $1 million mark.

Phil Salt has had an incredible year in 2025 and was rewarded with a retention at Royal Challengers Bangalore worth over $1 million. Jos Buttler, meanwhile, must now be one of the highest-paid players in English cricket history. This is his fifth IPL season earning more than $1 million, which is an extraordinary level of consistency in such a volatile auction market.

Sam Curran, who was previously one of the biggest earners in the IPL, was retained by Rajasthan Royals on a lower figure this time around. And on the other end of the spectrum, players like Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow went unsold at the auction and won’t feature in next year’s tournament at all.

The IPL itself is also going through an interesting moment. Jio-Hotstar, the broadcaster that paid huge money for the IPL rights, has started to endure financial pressure and has already asked to exit its agreement with the league a few seasons early. How that plays out will be fascinating to watch.

For now, next year’s IPL is shaping up to be the biggest one yet and, once again, the players are making the most of it.

Enjoy the holidays everyone, you’ll be getting a few emails from me over the festive period.

Jordan