In an interview with GQ magazine, Kylian Mbappé expresses his fears regarding the increasingly dense schedule imposed on players.
His possible participation in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, his status in the French team, his future at PSG (or elsewhere): Kylian Mbappé addresses a lot of subjects in the interview he gave to the magazine GQ. With optimism and ambition.
But the captain of the Blues (25 years old) is also aware of certain excesses in his sport and does not hide his concern to see football gradually becoming the equivalent of the NBA. A league in which basketball players are subjected for six months – eight for the most successful among them – to a frantic pace.
“I’m tired, I’m not playing on Saturday”
“We are approaching the NBA model with seventy-game seasonshe observes. Personally I’m not against playing so much, but we won’t be able to be good every time and give the audience the expected show.”
Across the Atlantic, teams have adapted to this hellish schedule by sometimes resting their best players, even when they are not injured. Unthinkable in football. “Today, if I decided to say ‘I’m tired, I’m not playing on Saturday’, it wouldn’t go through”affirms the Parisian striker.
“I don’t want to be a lecturer, but…”
“The spectator who pays for his ticket, and who will perhaps see you only once during the season, wants to witness a performance worthy of the name and that is normal. However, it is a different mode of management to which football is exposed if the number of matches increases,” he adds.
“I don’t want to give lessons, but we must think together to succeed in offering the best possible show and for players, spectators and authorities to come together.” With the new Champions League and the 48-team World Cup, among others, it is already too late…
