FootyChatter.com

World Cup Kylian Mbappe is hoping to reach a third World Cup final with France Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images It is a mild and still November evening, and the sun is descending towards the horizon west of Paris as France’s players walk out onto the pitch at a deserted Parc des Princes. Kylian Mbappe, the team’s captain, is one of the last to appear. Wearing a long-sleeved navy-blue tracksuit top and matching bottoms, a lightweight navy-blue beanie hat, black gloves and orange boots, he emerges into the arena alone. Advertisement He walks slowly, with an open gait and the hint of a swagger, doing everything with the studied insouciance common to his generation of players. After taking a white bib from assistant coach Guy Stephan and slipping it over his head, he unhurriedly jogs across the grass and falls in between Michael Olise and Rayan Cherki as the players perform gentle widths of the pitch. During the possession-based warm-up exercise that follows, marked out by a perimeter of cones, Mbappe positions himself squarely in the middle of the group, slowly weaving around his team-mates with the ball and occasionally exchanging passes with other players. He stands next to Cherki again as the squad go through their stretches, sharing a joke with the Manchester City forward while he uses his shoulder for balance. At times, he stands just apart from the rest of the group, looking on — a central figure, but a slightly detached one too. Such is the life of a captain. Such is the life of a megastar. The following evening, on that same expanse of grass but in front of 41, 055 spectators, Mbappe sparkles in a 4-0 defeat of Ukraine that rubber-stamps France’s qualification for the 2026 World Cup. His two goals take his career tally to 400 for club and country, and he also lays on a late assist for Hugo Ekitike. At the final whistle, a camera operator races onto the pitch and makes a beeline for the man in the blue No 10 shirt. Mbappe stands with his hands on his hips, taking in the moment. As his team-mates head off to salute the home supporters behind the goal at the north end of the pitch, he peels away towards the dugouts, greeting members of the coaching staff one by one and embracing head coach Didier Deschamps. Job done, tickets to North America secured. At 27 years old, Mbappe has already cemented his status as a World Cup immortal. Advertisement In the 2018 tournament in Russia, he was the teenage boy wonder, inspiring France to global glory for only the second time in their history. Four years later, in Qatar, he was the star turn, top-scoring with eight goals and becoming only the second player — after England’s Sir Geoff Hurst in 1966 — to net a hat-trick in the final as the defending champions lost on penalties to Argentina. With the 2026 tournament just over two months away, he remains France’s most important player and has also become team captain. But as he has discovered over the past two years, being the star forward and skipper does not always guarantee being spared from the firing line. Even before he wore the armband, Mbappe was speaking out with the authority of a player who knew precisely how much weight his words carried. In 2022, his refusal to take part in a photoshoot for a team sponsor forced the French Football Federation (FFF) into reviewing a collective image-rights agreement with their players. Mbappe had complained that he did not want to be associated with certain brands, such as fast-food outlets and betting companies. The following year, he expedited Noel Le Graet’s downfall as FFF president by publicly rebuking the octogenarian for saying he would not even have picked up the phone if Zinedine Zidane had called him to enquire about the France job. “Zidane is France, ” Mbappe wrote on social media. “You don’t disrespect a legend like that. ” Within two months, Le Graet was gone. Mbappe was appointed captain in March 2023, four months on from his World Cup final heroics, after previous skipper Hugo Lloris announced his international retirement. He was then 24 years and three months old. At his introductory press conference, Mbappe advised journalists that he would be “a different kind of captain” to veteran goalkeeper Lloris, who had appeared beside Deschamps for practically every pre-match press conference of his tenure as the skipper. “I know that my words create noise, ” the striker explained. “You’ll see me a bit more frequently (than before), but I want to leave space for others. ” Advertisement During Euro 2024, his first major tournament as captain, Mbappe used his platform to speak out about France’s parliamentary elections, warning about the dangers of “extremes”. Although he stopped short of naming any specific parties, Mbappe made it clear that he endorsed concerns expressed by team-mate Marcus Thuram about the prospect of far-right party National Rally coming to power. On the pitch in Germany, Mbappe’s Euros were a disappointment. He fractured his nose in France’s opening group game against Austria and scored just once, from the penalty spot, on his side’s run to the semi-finals. The months that followed would prove to be the most turbulent of his international career. Having finally completed his long-anticipated move from Paris Saint-Germain to Real Madrid, Mbappe informed Deschamps that he did not want to be involved in France’s Nations League games in September 2024 so he could spend time adjusting to his new environment. Deschamps named him in the squad anyway, and Mbappe made little attempt to disguise his displeasure. He cut a listless figure in the press conference held to preview the opening group fixture against Italy at the Parc des Princes, saying, “I don’t care”, when asked if he was concerned about the reception he might receive from PSG fans and declaring that criticism of the national team’s football was “the least of my worries”. France lost 3-1 the following day in a match where their main man was largely anonymous. Mbappe was left out by Deschamps for the next international break in the October as a precaution over a left hamstring issue, only to play 70 minutes for Madrid two days after the squad was announced. A night out with friends in Stockholm, on the same evening as France’s 4-1 win against Israel that month, had repercussions after Mbappe was named by the Swedish press in connection with a rape investigation that was eventually abandoned without any charges being pressed. Mbappe’s lawyer said the player believed he had “nothing to be reproached for”. The man himself used social media to call media reports “FAKE NEWS! !! ” Advertisement When Deschamps left Mbappe out of his squad again the following month, debates raged about his suitability as captain and speculation even swirled that his love affair with the national team might be at an end. Mbappe’s return to the France fold, in March last year, was accompanied by a media charm offensive intended to allay any fears about his commitment. But although he spoke in glowing terms about his love for the French jersey, he shed little light on the reasons for his absence from the previous November’s get-together, admitting only — in an interview with Le Parisien — to having had “two or three disagreements” with Deschamps. Mbappe nevertheless seemed to be taking his role as captain to heart, delivering an address to the squad before the return leg of their Nations League semi-final against Croatia last March and publicly consoling Jules Kounde and Theo Hernandez after they squandered their spot kicks in France’s eventual shootout win. Following a run of seven games without a goal — the longest of his international career — Mbappe rediscovered his scoring touch as well. His double against Ukraine in November made him the first player to score in six successive appearances for France since Jean-Pierre Papin in the early 1990s. His neatly-dinked opener in Thursday’s 2-1 friendly win against Brazil in the United States took his total of international goals to 56, just one shy of Olivier Giroud’s national record. Finally established at centre-forward, having spent the majority of his international career on the flanks, Mbappe is more central to France’s hopes of success — literally and figuratively — than ever. Although the captaincy has elevated Mbappe above his team-mates in a hierarchical sense, he continues to play a leading role in the more light-hearted moments. In a video published online by the FFF in October, he was shown solemnly handing Jean-Philippe Mateta an empty water bottle to use as a pretend microphone for his initiation song, only to collapse into laughter — along with the rest of the squad — when it became apparent that the Crystal Palace striker had forgotten the words to his chosen tune. Advertisement In June, after Deschamps invited the squad to applaud the PSG players who had just won 5-0 against Inter in the Champions League final, Mbappe struggled to contain his amusement at the stony expression worn by Thuram, who had been on the losing side that night. “Day-to-day, he’s well integrated in the squad, ” a source close to the dressing room, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, tells The Athletic. “People like him. He’s a big p**s-taker, but people take the p**s out of him too. ” Mbappe is close friends with Thuram and also has a strong relationship with Ousmane Dembele, the fellow forward he has known since the age of 14. He gets on well with Cherki, too. But after that Ukraine game, Deschamps highlighted his ability to connect with all of his team-mates. “I know why I gave him the armband, ” the France coach told reporters. “He knows how to bring together the whole squad, young and old. He knows how to be a leader. ” Others dismiss suggestions that being a single-minded goalscorer prevents Mbappe from putting others before himself. “He’s the boss in the team, along with a few other people, and when he speaks out, he really does it for the squad, ” says a source close to one senior player, also speaking anonymously to protect relationships. “People who describe him as selfish are wrong. “The perception that people have of him is miles away from reality. He’s a real leader, along with (goalkeeper) Mike Maignan, (centre-back) Ibrahima Konate and two or three other players. He guides the team. ” Mbappe’s transformation into the “boss” of this squad has been facilitated by the fact that practically none of the senior players with whom he won the 2018 World Cup are still on the scene. Lloris, Giroud and Antoine Griezmann have retired from international football, Raphael Varane, Samuel Umtiti, Blaise Matuidi and Steve Mandanda have hung up their boots entirely and injuries have stalled Paul Pogba’s comeback this season from an 18-month doping ban. Advertisement The only survivors from the squad that triumphed in Moscow are Mbappe’s close friend Dembele, the timid N’Golo Kante and Lucas Hernandez, whose selection for this year’s World Cup is far from secure. Deschamps also considered Griezmann for the captaincy when he was mulling over Lloris’ successor. The hard-working Atletico Madrid forward made all of his 137 international appearances under him — including a record run of 84 consecutive games — and was one of his most trusted on-field lieutenants. Griezmann conceded he found it “hard” to digest Deschamps’ eventual decision to give the armband to Mbappe. The announcement of his international retirement in October 2024, after he had played only a bit-part role at the Euros that summer, cleared the way for the new captain to assert his authority in the dressing room. But the impact of Mbappe’s unquestioned authority has had implications for other players. The source close to the squad told The Athletic that Mbappe had the freedom to roam all over the pitch during games and would occasionally make the same runs as some of his attacking team-mates. That same source said there had been no quarrels over the matter and that there was an acceptance of his status as France’s most dangerous player. But added that this has affected how some players perform for the national team and that it is a dynamic that could damage confidence. Internally, the feeling at the FFF is that Mbappe’s goals and match-winning performances far outweigh any concerns about the impact he might have on other players and that the freedom he demands is no different from the liberty that has been afforded to many of the game’s other great strikers over the years. For his part, Deschamps has frequently asserted that Mbappe’s responsibilities as the team’s number-one goalscorer have had no adverse effect on his ability to fulfil his duties as captain. Advertisement “People have an image of him as very selfish and individualistic, ” the 57-year-old former France skipper told an audience during a sports journalism festival in the western French town of Laval last month. “He’s a striker, so it would be surprising if he didn’t have a form of selfishness. But he knows that, since he’s become captain, his words engage the whole squad. ” A representative for Mbappe did not respond to a request for comment from The Athletic. After a spell on the sidelines nursing a left knee sprain, Mbappe was named in the 26-man squad for this week’s friendly games in the United States against Brazil and Colombia (a 3-1 French win on Sunday near Washington, D. C. , where Mbappe played only the final 18 minutes off the bench). Those were France’s final fixtures before Deschamps names his World Cup squad on May 13. Two further friendlies will follow in early June, against Ivory Coast and opponents yet to be announced in Philadelphia, before France open their Group I campaign against old foes Senegal at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey, a few miles from New York City, on June 16. Having failed to win any major silverware in his maiden season in Spain, Mbappe’s primary focus over the campaign’s final months will be Madrid’s twin pursuit of honours in La Liga and the Champions League. But he has no qualms about admitting that the pursuit of a second World Cup crown is already an obsession. “The World Cup final, July 19 in the United States, I dream about it morning, noon and night, ” he told L’Equipe Le Magazine in an interview published in September. “The date’s been circled. We have a brilliant team and I hope we’ll be there. ” Going into the tournament, Mbappe will hope to join such resonantly historic names as Pele, Garrincha, Giuseppe Meazza and Cafu on the select list of players who have played on two World Cup-winning teams. With 12 goals at the tournament to his name already, he also needs only five more to surpass Miroslav Klose of Germany as the tournament’s all-time leading scorer. History beckons once again and, as ever, Mbappe is in a hurry. And if France prevail at global level for a third time, he will get his hands on the trophy before everyone else. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Tom Williams is a freelance writer for The Athletic, covering French football