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Editor
Despite a double course in Spanish/Communication, I decided to take control of my dreams by heading into journalism. With a master's degree in sports journalism, I cover sports and football news with as much admiration for transfer periods, when a club must make crucial choices for next season.
This Monday, the former sports director of PSG Leonardo spoke in the columns of Le Figaro. The latter notably affirmed that the expensive extension of Kylian Mbappé in 2022 was a bad idea. However, Jérôme Rothen believes that the Brazilian leader is somewhat hypocritical while the Frenchman or even Neymar laid down the law under his directive. Explanation.
Sports director of PSG from 2011 to 2013 then from 2019 to 2022, Leonardo made headlines this week. And for good reason, the Brazilian leader granted a long interview to Figaro. Within the latter, Leonardo notably affirmed that at the time of his two visits, the latter had tried to put respect for the Parisian institution above everything else. An opinion not at all to the taste of Jerome Rothenwho believes that certain players like Neymar et Kylian Mbappé felt above the club under the mandate of the sporting director.
“They felt above it and management mistakes were made”
“Excuse me, when he said that he wanted to respect the institution, you have the impression that during Leonardo's second visit the players respected the PSG institution and did not feel above it”released the former midfielder on RMC. “They felt above it and mistakes in management were made because he should have pulled the ears of some in the dressing room but he didn't dare because the fact that the club had invested a lot in this or that player, that did not give him this responsibility and above all he wanted to go in their direction”.
“I’m not saying it was easy, but the aspect of ‘enforcing the institution’ is false”
“When you are sporting director of a club like Paris Saint-Germain and you come back with the image you have, you must ensure that with the best players in the squad who are the showcases of the team team, and Kylian Mbappé was part of it, you must at least have healthy relationships with these people”continues Jerome Rothen. “Like with Neymar at the time, like with Verratti. And as luck would have it, things were going very badly with Mbappé. I'm not saying it was easy, but the 'enforcing the institution' aspect is false. When he was there, he had players above the institution”.
