In Lisbon, against the France team, Saturday November 14, Portugal will be able to count on its star, Cristiano Ronaldo, finally fully recovered from the Covid-19. During this poster of the 5e day of Group C of the League of Nations, the Blues hope to rely on the talent of another essential, Kylian Mbappé, spared since the start of the international meeting this week.
During the communication of his list, on November 5, the coach, Didier Deschamps, recalled his desire to do everything to count on his phenomenon against the Portuguese: “If he is on the list, there is a very strong possibility that he will be available. Not for wednesday [11 novembre] against Finland, but Saturday against Portugal. “
The striker remained in the stands during the friendly defeat against Finland (2-0). Thursday, according to The team, he trained separately from the group. It remains to be seen if he will honor his 39th weekende international cape or if he will have to wait, perhaps Tuesday against Sweden. The decision will probably be taken at the last moment.
Shaken by the infernal rhythm of the post-pandemic calendar – a match every three days or so since the resumption of Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) on September 10 – the 21-year-old world champion has alternated, since the start of the season, goals (7 in six Ligue 1 games and 3 in four international games) and minor physical annoyances.
In addition to a recalcitrant pain in the ankle, following a tackle received in the final of the Coupe de France this summer, and which handicaps him since the Final 8 of the Champions League, Mbappé injured his thigh in the League 1 in a match against Nantes (October 31). He missed his team’s last two games: the defeat in Leipzig and the victory against Rennes.
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Appeasement between PSG and the French team
The day after a victorious goal against Sweden, on September 5, Kylian Mbappé had assumed his will to play despite everything, during an interview with Telefoot :
“I’m still in pain, but I think it’s going to be like this for many more weeks, it just doesn’t come back like that. “
The management of his playing time has become a major issue between his club and the staff of the Blues. On September 7, its sports director, Leonardo, was married by the way in which the French federation had announced the positive control for SARS-CoV-2 of Mbappé, during a tricolor rally: “I find it unacceptable that we learn from the press that we have a positive player. “
Another subject of annoyance, the ninety minutes played on October 14 in Croatia, two days from a PSG championship match in Nîmes. This did not prevent the Parisian coach, Thomas Tuchel, from starting his young player, author of a double that night.
Since these tensions, the two parties, according to information from The team, have come closer, united by a common interest: to preserve Mbappé. PSG had published a statement, conciliating, on the medical assessment of its players after the victory against Rennes, on November 7:
“Kylian Mbappé, whose development is as expected, will continue his individual care and training with the France team, in close collaboration with the medical staff of PSG. “
On Monday, at a press conference, Deschamps insisted on this collaboration:
“There is a protocol that is put in place by the clubs, we follow the evolution as we have always done. Between respectful people, we do things well (…). We have the same objective, which is to protect the players. “
Target of criticism after the Champions League
Propelled at 18 in the France team, recruited for 180 million euros by PSG in Monaco, world champion a year later and destined to become the best player in the world, Kylian Mbappé has not had such a clear trajectory that his thunderous beginnings foreshadowed him.
On the pitch, his performances remain above average – still 18 goals in 20 Ligue 1 games played last season. But the expectations – and with them the critics – are proportional to the height of this extraordinary talent.
While he played “on an ankle” in Final 8 – he was even a substitute in the quarter-finals against Bergamo – his mixed performance in the final against Bayern Munich did not spare him. After the Parisian defeat, a statistic associating him with Neymar circulated: 0 goal in 23 shots attempted for the star duo, including only 9 on target, during the three Lisbon matches.
The harshness of these judgments makes us forget that it was his entry into play against Atalanta who participated in the reversal of the situation at the end of the match (from 1-0 for the Italians to 2-1 for Paris). Normality or injustice, everyone remembers only his missed face-to-face with Manuel Neuer when the score of the final was still 0-0. On October 20, during PSG’s home defeat against Manchester United (2-1) at the opening of the European campaign, he once again drew criticism.
“You don’t become Ronaldo in a few months”
Frank Hocquemiller, specialist in the image of football players, highlights the pressure on his shoulders:
“It’s the price of fame and the players know it. He looked for the light, he likes it. As a child, he says he trained to answer interviews and wanted to be the best in the world. Today, he is not yet at the top, where he aspires to be. And that’s normal, you don’t become Ronaldo in a few months. “
Surrounded by an ultra-present trio (his mother, his father and his lawyer, Delphine Verheyden) who manages the flourishing Mbappé business, the young man, whose freshness and maturity impressed during his media debut, also comes up against the difficulties associated with its constantly evolving status.
“When you are Kylian Mbappé, when you imagine what he represents, you have to control your communication. Moreover, when he let himself go a little, we reproached him for it, explains Frank Hocquemiller. Afterwards, he must not complain about it. Its ascent cannot be achieved without banana peels to avoid. “
With the misforms of Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann – abused in their respective clubs of Manchester and Barça – the striker has everything to put on definitively the executive costume of the Blues.
Negotiations for his contract extension in Paris, which ends in 2022, have started and are proving crucial for the club, threatened by the interest of Real Madrid. Under the jersey of PSG or that of the Blues, Kylian Mbappé is more than ever this scintillating object of desire.
