After his disappointing Euro, Kylian Mbappé was officially presented to the Santiago Bernabéu crowd as a new Real Madrid player. In the process, the kid from Bondy was able to go and enjoy a well-deserved vacation, failing to join the French Olympic team as he had hoped.
Indeed, the “Kyk’s” has long proclaimed loudly its desire to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (from July 26 to August 9). Yes, but there you go, Real Madrid put its veto. The Casa Blanca was not obliged to release its new star recruit, the Olympic tournament not being included in the Fifa calendar. A refusal that does not surprise Michel Platini, who understands the Merengue.
Platini: “For football, the Olympics are not the most important competition”
“If the Games were held in Papua New Guinea, would you be happy if the best French players went there and missed the qualifications for the European Cups for their clubs? Since it’s in France, we’re full of praise. I’ve been in football for 40 years, we’ve been talking about it for 40 years and (Olympic) football is still not on the FIFA calendar. If Real wants to let Mbappé go, why not. But if he doesn’t want to…”declared the former UEFA president in the columns of Midi-Libre.
And Platini added on the thorny subject: ” It’s normal. Clubs can’t pay players who are at the Euro for a month and then another month for the Olympic Games. It’s not possible. For football, the Games are not the most important competition. For women’s football, on the other hand, it’s something else.”
