French police open investigation into Kylian Mbappe payments

Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe is never far from the headlines regardless of what he is doing, but has once again made ripples in France. A series of payments by the France captain are being investigated.

Mbappe is part of an investigation that has been launched into five members of the Republican Security Corps (CRS) report Le Canard Enchaine (via Sport). The CRS are generally charged with general security, but in particular controlling crowds, disturbances and protests.

The focus of the investigation are payments made from Mbappe to five agents of the CRS in June of 2023. The intelligence agency Tracfin, which tracks financial crimes in France have a document which details payments of €30k to four CRS agents that summer, with a fifth agent receiving a total of €60.3k. The total outlay from Mbappe’s accounts adds up to €180.3k, which was flagged by their systems. All five of the agents were assigned to protect the French national team at the time.

The France captain had promised to donate all of his prize money from the 2022 Qatar World Cup to the security forces that protected them during the tournament, just six months earlier. There is a signed document from Mbappe saying as much, and the Real Madrid star had consulted his lawyer, who assured that the security personnel would not have to include the donations in their tax declaration.

The internal investigation force in the French police are trying to establish whether the ‘donations’ relate to their job at the World Cup, or in reality to a personal protection for the 26-year-old. In particular, the fifth commanding officer, is under the microscope, having undertaken two trips to Cameroon and Vaucluse in the South of France alongside Mbappe in June 2023.

Les Bleus played European qualifiers that month against Gibraltar and Greece, both of which Mbappe was involved in. The latter was in Paris at the Stade de France, some way from Vaucluse.