Kylian Mbappé’s week was pretty full on. His Real Madrid side slumped to a 3-0 defeat away at Arsenal in the Uefa Champions League. Two days later, the French star’s lawyers were escalating a legal onslaught against his former club, Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain - and it made the front page of the Financial Times. On the surface, the legal dispute is a classic of the ‘player versus club’ genre, as Mbappé, 26, fights to recover €55mn in wages and bonuses he claims he is owed by PSG. But Mbappé is no ordinary player, and PSG no ordinary club. The fight pits arguably the world’s top footballer against one of the game’s most powerful decision makers. Mbappé was more than just PSG’s best player. He was a marketing machine for Qatar. He wore shirts emblazoned with flag carrier Qatar Airways, flew to Doha for promotional activities, and starred as France narrowly lost the 2022 Fifa World Cup. At club level, the French forward led PSG through years of domestic domination, e...