“Nobody saw a leader”: Kylian Mbappé also disappointed the Blues' locker room

Kylian Mbappé, absent from the French team's training camp, is sharply reprimanded by many players and observers.

For the next two matches of the Blues against Israel and Belgium, Didier Deschamps will have to do without his captain Kylian Mbappé, who is out of the training camp. When announcing the list, the coach of the Blues explained that the Real Madrid striker had "a problem that is not serious, but that requires care to be able to recover well", completing : "I am not here to take risks".

However, this did not prevent Kylian Mbappé from playing two days later and even for 70 minutes against Villarreal, without showing any particular fatigue or discomfort. “We must not forget that the employer is the club(…). I know very well that he is not going to go against his club. He doesn't want to go against the selection either, but, after discussions, it is necessary to make sure to privilege the interest of the player, without putting him in difficulty”, Didier Deschamps tried to justify himself in an interview for FFTV.

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Problem, this absence is a stain and controversy especially since Kylian Mbappé has not really been the same for several months. He is even less and less appreciated by the French public. Philippe Diallo, president of the FFF, tried to defend the choice of the coach and the player, but in the “Club info” on Franceinfo, the president still believes that “there is nothing above the French team and the national teams”.

Kylian Mbappé é "éwas elsewhere" during the last gathering

“Didier [Deschamps] had spoken with him directly and with the medical staff of Real Madrid and he decided not to select him, which does not call into question Kylian's attachment to the “France team”, he adds. But for the head of the Federation, the reason may be elsewhere. “The question that is asked is that today, in a crazy calendar, with multiple competitions, the top players are on a rhythm of 65 matches per year", Diallo declares. “We are reaching a sort of ceiling where It is necessary for clubs, national teams, and authorities to sit down around a table, particularly with the aim of preserving national teams and finding a balance.”

This very strange period is therefore conducive to tensions, because for many, being captain of the French team imposes certain duties. Especially with the retirement of Antoine Griezmann, the vice-captain. At the last gathering, people close to the selection explained that "pnobody saw a leader" in Kylian Mbappé's behavior. "He was elsewhere", says another in comments quoted by Le Figaro, while the coach assured that he was not not "in the best psychological frame of mind". To try to get some other answers, Didier Deschamps will be at a press conference on Wednesday evening, the day before the match against Israel in the Nations League.