After being out of the Paris Saint-Germain first squad for several weeks due to an ongoing contract dispute, French starlet Kylian Mbappe returned on Sunday.
PSG launched the defense of their Ligue 1 championship with a scoreless draw against Lorient at home on Saturday, with the team’s most valuable player watching from the stands.
Prior to the PSG-Lorient match, Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbappe had “very constructive and positive discussions,” according to a statement released by PSG. “The player was reinstated in the first training team this morning.”
Following a summer of change at the Parc des Princes marked by new hires and Lionel Messi’s departure, the Mbappe standoff has continued to take center stage in news reports.
The France captain has declined to sign a contract extension with PSG, allowing him to depart for free the next year. Real Madrid has long been thought to be his favourite destination.
For a player who cost 180 million euros ($198 million) to purchase from Monaco in 2017, PSG wants to sell him now and earn a sizable transfer fee.
Mbappe has not been permitted to train with the first team and was kept out of the squad to play Lorient, despite the fact that new coach Luis Enrique expressed hope that a solution might be reached on Friday.
Instead, he watched as Luis Enrique gave debuts to six players while sitting next to fellow World Cup winner Ousmane Dembele, who had just finished his transfer from Barcelona earlier in the day.