France captain Kylian Mbappe said Saturday he is not bitter that Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League the year after he departed for Real Madrid.
“I didn’t leave too soon; my story with PSG was over. I am not bitter; I had reached the end of the road,” Mbappe said in a press conference ahead of Sunday’s Nations League third-place match against Germany in Stuttgart.
PSG crushed Inter Milan 5-0 to win the Champions League in Munich last Saturday, the first time the club has won the competition.“
I tried everything, and it was destiny that meant it had to happen without me,” said Mbappe.
“PSG winning the Champions League without me doesn’t affect me. I was happy, I think they deserved it.“
They’ve had so many years where they struggled. I’ve been there too; I’ve played in every Champions League stage in Paris except for the victory.
“They’re the best team in Europe.“I don’t remember seeing a team win 5-0 in a major final.”
Mbappe has repeated his desire to win Europe’s biggest club competition, but the closest the Paris-born forward got with his boyhood club was losing the final in 2020 to Bayern Munich.
The 26-year-old moved to Madrid in the summer of 2024 hoping to lift the Champions League, but the Spanish giants crashed out in the quarter-finals of the competition to Arsenal in April.
Real failed to win a trophy in the 2024-25 season, their first campaign without silverware in four years.
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