If we are to believe the news, Kylian Mbappé is finally (and for real this time! No seriously! Well... maybe) going to leave Paris Saint-Germain. There is reason to believe this time really is different. The biggest indication of this came over the weekend, when PSG manager Luis Enrique subbed off Mbappé at halftime of an away match against Monaco—a naked provocation. Mbappé responded by coming out of the dressing room after halftime and waltzing around the pitch's perimeter, waving at fans and posing for selfies, as if blithely oblivious to the significant match the team he captains was in the midst of. After making the rounds, Mbappé declined to watch the rest of the match from the bench with the team and instead went up into the VIP box to sit next to his momager. Luis Enrique and Mbappé have since insisted that there are no ill feelings, that the manager is simply using the remaining matches of a league the club already has in the bag to prepare for Life After Kylian, and that in the games that matter, Mbappé's place on the pitch will be assured. The games that matter are, of course, the ones in the Champions League. Even with the growing clarity that all involved see the PSG-Mbappé relationship as one nearing its expiration, the club and the player both still share an obsession with club soccer's most hallowed tournament. PSG and Mbappé both need the prestige and validation that come with winning the trophy with the big ears. For PSG, winning the Champions League would be the long-awaited culmination of a process that started back in 2011, when Qatar first purchased the club and with it sought to ascend into the soccer's (and geopolitical society's) aristocracy, and would at last shut the mouths of all those who've laughed and laughed at the parvenu's vulgar and consistently, humiliatingly failed attempts at seeking a place above its station. For Mbappé, the Champions League is the only club tournament that offers him an audience commensurate with his talent, in front of which he might earn the adulation, glory, and status that would surely already be his if not for the fact that he plays in a team and league hardly anyone watches or respects.

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