‘History Is Not Bought’ – Marco Verratti’s Former Agent Rips PSG in Interview With Spanish Media Outlet

In 2017, FC Barcelona did their best to cour Marco Verratti but no avail. The 28-year-old would then switch agents, going from Donato di Campli to Mino Raiola. Paris Saint-Germain is labeled a “golden prison” as the capital club rarely sells its star players. 

In an interview with AS, Verratti’s former agent, Campli, spoke about what goes behind the scenes at PSG when a star player asks to leave the Ligue 1 side. The former agent detailed the circumstances resulting in the Verratti saga. 

“It is a bad memory, an incredible story. Marco and I had decided to sign for Barcelona; we had already established contacts with the sports director and President Bartomeu. Marco himself told the club on the second day of pre-season training that he wanted to leave PSG, that he was not going to renew,” Campli said. 

“Barcelona had just received the €222-million from Neymar’s termination clause; they had a lot of money in the bank to meet what they asked for him. The next thing that happened is that PSG threatened Marco, and he ended up signing with Raiola, although he will never recognize it.”

The conversation would then switch to Kylian Mbappé, who has one year left on his contract. Campli stated that if the 22-year-old doesn’t extend his contract, it will be another saga such as the one PSG had with former midfielder Adrien Rabiot, who would sit in the stands until his contract ran out. 

“All this for PSG is a personal matter, not money. You think you can buy everything. If Mbappé does not renew, he will go to the stands. They don’t care at all not to enter that money now; if I have to bet, I would say that he doesn’t come out. From personal experience,” Campli said.

Finally, the long conversation with the Spanish media outlet resulted in Campli calling what some Twitter users with player avatars would say a “plastic club.”

“The only hope is Leonardo, who is a soccer man. And that is important. But even so, I see it very difficult, almost impossible. With Al-Khelaïfi and PSG, you have a problem, and it is as if they are lazy with money,” Campli said.

“Mbappé must not offend the emir and tell him that he is leaving because it is in his hands. Hopefully, he is lucky because, in the end, PSG is not fooling anyone. You want to buy history, but history is not bought. History is written, and they can’t, they can’t.”