Kylian Mbappé’s shocking announcement: Is this the end for the French sensation?

Home Euro 2024 and Euro 2025 Silent for four matches, the captain of the French team has appeared worn-out in his recent outings. He hopes to regain his form with the Blues against the Netherlands, in a match counting for the qualifiers for Euro 2024. France Télévisions – Sports Desk Published on 13/10/2023 06:30 Estimated reading time: 4 min Kylian Mbappé during the training of the French team at Clairefontaine, on October 10, 2023. (FRANCK FIFE / AFP) He is the last player of the French team to have entered the field, head down and with a closed face, during the training session before the match against the Netherlands on Thursday, October 12, on the pitch of the Johan Cruyff Arena. An hour earlier, Kylian Mbappé had not appeared at the press conference, ceding his place to Aurélien Tchouameni. The striker for the Blues, affected by a bereavement that briefly forced him to leave the camp on Wednesday, was not in the mood to answer journalists’ questions. The focus was on the field, despite his less than optimal shape. On Friday night against the Netherlands, in a match counting for the qualifiers for Euro 2024, Kylian Mbappé will indeed be a starter and will wear the captain’s armband. But what can we expect from the Paris Saint-Germain forward? Silent for four matches with the Parisian club, the prodigy from Bondy is not in a period of uncertainty, as doubt is not allowed in Mbappé’s mindset. But his recent performances have not lived up to his status. Against Newcastle, during Paris’ rout in the Champions League (1-4), Mbappé was non-existent. Facing Rennes (3-1) last Sunday, he showed an unusual lack of accuracy by shooting over the empty goal after dribbling past his former teammate with the Blues, Steve Mandanda. “I think he [Mbappé] was a little tired in this match [against Rennes],” explained Ousmane Dembélé after the game. “We play every three days, it weighs a bit.” In search of his peak form A fatigued and less successful Mbappé is quite rare and rather surprising. “It may be a lack of clarity due to this fatigue, and one may wonder if the preparation he had, a little different from the others, is not to blame,” explains Eric Rabesandratana, former PSG player between 1997 and 2001, and now a consultant for France Bleu Paris. A month and a half after the end of the conflict that opposed him to PSG all summer, the impact of his stay in the Parisian loft during the pre-season preparation raises questions. After an euphoric start to the season, with eight goals scored in his first five matches, is Mbappé feeling a physical backlash? “After what he went through during the summer, he has the right to be a little less well and less effective,” reassures Didier Deschamps. By only playing a friendly match – the last 25 minutes of PSG’s first preparation match against Le Havre, at the end of July – Mbappé undoubtedly fell behind physically. “A player placed in a loft (isolated from the group), will lack volume, work in wide spaces, markers, playing time with his teammates,” describes the physical trainer of a French club. Nevertheless, the captain of the Blues did not spend the summer lounging in the sun. In addition to his personal physical work, the Parisian trained at high intensity with the other unwanted players from PSG, as the rules of the Professional Football League (LFP) require clubs to provide facilities and preparation to players placed in lofts. But this individualized work is not equivalent to competition. The Blues for rejuvenation? “Now he needs to string together matches to rebalance himself. He needs to play,” assures the physical trainer. “There’s no need to worry, it’s a natural rebalancing that will happen,” agrees Rabesandratana. Even tired, Mbappé must accumulate playing time, without taking risks for his body, to regain his best form and work wonders in the coming weeks and months. “The French team can also do him good because they play a lot for him, so it can put him in the best conditions,” describes Eric Rabesandratana. Like Antoine Griezmann, who had difficulties in the past with his club Atlético de Madrid and took advantage of international breaks to rejuvenate with the Blues, Mbappé hopes to find the back of the net against the Netherlands. This would allow him to equal Michel Platini’s number of goals for the national team (41 goals). Mbappé had shone in the first leg against the Dutch at the Stade de France in March (4-0) – two goals and an assist – and a new XXL performance would be welcome, as the Blues can qualify for the Euros with a victory. Nothing would please French supporters and Didier Deschamps more, who said on Monday with a big smile, “It would be very good if he could regain his efficiency with us”.