Former Paris Saint-Germain captain Thiago Silva (41), now a centre-back at Chelsea, looked back in L’Équipe on the relationship between Brazilian forward Neymar and Kylian Mbappé (26), then the rising star of PSG. A promising duo that eventually became a symbol of a relational failure in Paris.
Thiago Silva: “They both arrived that summer and their relationship was incredible.”
“At PSG, Mbappé and Neymar got along very well at the beginning, but their relationship deteriorated. Why?
It was a very beautiful story, though. I remember the Trophée des Champions against Kylian Mbappé’s Monaco in Morocco (PSG’s 2–1 win on July 29, 2017, in Tangier). At the end of the match, Mbappé wanted to talk to me. He said: ‘Even if Neymar signs, I still want to come and be part of this team. If you can talk to the president about it.’ Both of them arrived that summer, and their relationship was incredible. They were connected to each other, among those who had the most fun on a daily basis.
I didn’t understand why they fell out. I was no longer at PSG. I don’t know which of the two caused the split, but it made me sad. They are two wonderful guys, and it’s disappointing that it ended like that.”
At first, everything seemed perfectly aligned. Neymar and Kylian Mbappé arrived at Paris Saint-Germain in a rare atmosphere of enthusiasm, with an obvious chemistry both on and off the pitch. Their football was instinctive, joyful, almost natural. The connections were immediate, the smiles frequent, and the prevailing feeling was that of a duo capable of taking Paris very far. Nothing at that time suggested a rupture.
Then their paths diverged. Neymar, already a global star, carried the weight of leadership and European expectations, while Mbappé, rapidly rising, increasingly became the face of the club’s future. The dynamics changed, statuses evolved, and responsibilities shifted as well. This gradual drift weakened a relationship that had originally been strong. That is what makes the break so hard to understand: it wasn’t built on an initial conflict, but on a silent, almost imperceptible evolution that eventually turned a natural bond into a heavy distance.
