This is news that surprised everyone several weeks ago. While he had just signed for Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappé had also been announced as the new owner of SM Caen. The Normandy club had made official the arrival as majority shareholder (around 80% of the shares) of Coalition Capital, Kylian Mbappé’s investment fund and notably managed by his mother Fayza Lamari. In the process, a new president was appointed in the person of Ziad Hammoud, former director of strategy and investments of beIN Media Group, who had since managed Kylian Mbappé’s image company. This Wednesday, the new president held a detailed press conference to reveal the broad outlines of the project led by the Mbappé family.
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A sporting ambition, but not only that
And Ziad Hammoud first wanted to speak about the financial situation of SM Caen, which is already very worrying. Let’s not lie to ourselves, the club is in the red financially. Investments will arrive and they will be quite massive this year to get it back on track and especially to start initiatives aimed at creating a solidity that will allow, over the coming years, to execute the strategy and make it a club that will no longer falter despite the loss of 60% of TV rights. This club must be managed like any other company with solid finances to give it the means to achieve its ambitions. We cannot be in constant volatility. A structural deficit of 11 million euros? We are in that water “, he explained before discussing the team’s complicated start to the season.
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Good news for Kylian Mbappé’s SM Caen
Indeed, SM Caen started its Ligue 2 season with 3 defeats and a draw, but has just had two victories. A relief for the new leaders. It was complicated for everyone. We tried as quickly as possible to give comfort and stability to the workforce, but as every time a company is transferred, there is a period of volatility. We experienced this with a lot of frustration because we always knew we had a great team, but we had to sort out two or three things. “But concretely, what are the sporting objectives of the new management of SM Caen? The rise to Ligue 1 seems to be obvious for the development of the club, even if the Mbappé clan absolutely does not want to rush things or sell a dream to the supporters who are expecting something big given the player’s notoriety.
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Kylian Mbappé already very invested
” There is an ambition to go back up and then go and fight with the teams at the top of the table. Brest is a very beautiful story, why not Caen? But be careful, we are not in the short term, in things quickly done to make them beautiful and which will collapse in a few weeks. A lot of fantasies and hysteria can be created about our shareholders (editor’s note: the Mbappé family), but I want to say that we are in a medium and long term work. There is a very ambitious objective on the ground, but also on the non-sporting side: everything that is commercial, administrative, content creation, communication… which will be put in place little by little. We are there as investors for the long term. Our vocation is not to create something and resell the asset in two years, that is not at all the idea. We want to shine the DNA of the club, its Caen, Calvados, Norman roots at the national and international levels ” he said before continuing. ” We have not set any deadlines. I prefer not to tell you “We will go up next year or in two years”, that would be based on nothing. You will never see me make promises that I cannot keep, and especially give objectives if we do not have all the marbles in our basket. »
It now remains to be seen how Kylian Mbappé, who clearly follows the club’s results closely, will get involved in this new adventure. The new president of the SMC has his own ideas on the subject. He follows the club closely, as a shareholder, but also as a great football fan. On the other hand, you are probably aware that he has another job. He will not be at Malherbe seven days a week, but I hope we will see him at the stadium this season. You know, we did not choose Caen at random. Deep down, he has this love at first sight for this club where he should have started and which has not faded over the ten years that have passed. There is a little romantic side to this missed opportunity. ” Enough to answer the questions. And while waiting for the project to really get going, the Normans will have to be present on the ground, because after all, that’s all that matters.
Pub. the 26/09/2024 11:00
Updated on 26/09/2024 12:19
