Extension, Real Madrid, Euro, Giroud, ego: The 6 details to remember from Mbappé’s interview

It is an exercise in which he is still just as comfortable. Often talkative and clear, sometimes charming, sometimes serious, Kylian Mbappé delivered as rarely this Tuesday for L’Equipe in a river interview. In this interview between the match against Manchester City (2-0) and the one against Rennes (2-0), the Frenchman does not elude any subject.

Yes, he wanted to leave. Yes, he had a bad experience of his summer in Blue and the consequences of his missed shot on goal. No, he has no problem with Olivier Giroud and Neymar. Here are six key takeaways from a long-term interview to read.

There was only Real

• His key answer : « No, I’m attached to Paris, and if I had left this summer, it would only have been for Real« .

An impossible extension?

• His key answer : « We are far from it [de la prolongation, NDLR], since I wanted to leave this summer. I’m not going to be the hypocrite and come and throw a bottle in the sea, like, ‘Oh, I don’t know’. This summer, my ambition was clear, I wanted to leave and put the club in the best conditions to ensure my replacement. Currently my future is not my priority« .

His rage against Neymar

It is a phrase that has caused a lot of talk. Faced with Montpellier (2-0), frustrated at not having been served in the right conditions by his friend Neymar, Mbappé had indulged in a violent sentence against the Brazilian. « He does not give me the pass this tramp« , as some had guessed. A phrase and a tension that he assumes today.

• His key answer : « Yes, yes, I said it. Now, these are things that happen all the time in football. It just doesn’t have to be something left. That’s why, immediately after, given the extent that it had taken, I spoke with him about it« .

The failure of the Blues at the Euro

• His key answer : « Yes, because three times nothing would have been enough to be in the quarterfinals. No, because there were beginnings. We were still more vulnerable. Before, you had to get up early to score a goal. Now, we take some, goals …« 

The muscular and public exchange with Giroud

For the Blues, the first sign of tension came from Olivier Giroud, unhappy at not receiving the balloons quickly enough in front of Bulgaria in preparation (3-0) by aiming, without naming him, Kylian Mbappé. A release that will spill a lot of ink and which will force the young French wisp to come and explain himself to the press a few days later. Since then, he assures him, everything is back to normal. He even wishes Giroud to return to Blue to erase Thierry Henry’s record.

• His key answer : « It dragged on, because people let it drag on. I’ll tell you the truth: the same evening, I was enraged, but two days later, I didn’t think about it anymore. I explained myself with him, I told him what I had to say to him, and then it was over« .

Is there a problem for the Blues?

• His key answer : « This is what I was made to feel and this is what I felt [qu’il était un problème, NDLR]. The message I received was that my ego was making us lose, that I wanted to take up too much space, and that without me, therefore, we might have won« .