This is the topic of the moment in the France team. Exactly a week ago, Didier Deschamps revealed his list for the November break and the matches against Israel and Italy. The Blues coach decided to do without Kylian Mbappé once again. Unlike the previous gathering where DD explained that he wanted to rest his captain, this time he announced that it was a purely personal choice. “I thought about it and made this decision about this gathering. Because I think it’s better that way.”explained Didier Deschamps to justify his decision.
Since then, information has spread on this issue and the player’s entourage has spoken out in the press. “Kylian has had a mental problem for several months. It cannot be resolved like that, it takes time and work that is carried out with specialists”confided those around him before dismantling Didier Deschamps’ version of his non-summons: “This is an erroneous or incomplete version of the truth. It’s much more complex than that. To believe that it is a decision of the coach is false. And if this absence is therefore a subject in the press, it is visibly much less so in the Blues locker room, which has not mentioned this subject at all for more than a week.
A locker room that expected his absence
According to the indiscretions of the daily newspaper L’Teamthe players of the France team absolutely do not address the subject of Kylian Mbappé internally. Firstly because the players close to Mbappé and who could therefore talk about him, namely Ousmane Dembélé and Youssouf Fofana, are not there, then because the group knew full well that Kylian Mbappé would not be present. In September, the Real Madrid striker clearly said during meals that he was going to concentrate in the coming months on his club and on his ambition to win the Ballon d’Or in particular. The former PSG player also did not hide a form of weariness and disillusionment regarding certain subjects in the France team.
So when Didier Deschamps made his list, the locker room wasn’t surprised at all. Nothing to do with the surprise retirement of Antoine Griezmann which caused talk in the locker room in October. The French daily specifies that internally, several players had noticed his distant relationship with DD and his isolation. Some even wondered if Maignan’s big rant, after the match against Italy which mainly targeted Mbappé and Griezmann, was not linked to this retirement. For Mbappé, it’s different and several players have, a few times, explained among themselves that they don’t dream at all about the life of Mbappé, who is over-hyped and spied on at every moment…
