Mbappé shakes up the European: 'I ask the French not to vote for the extreme right'

ISERLHON - A bombastic and bursting descent on the pitch even more than those that made him a global football star, ready to light up the Santiago Bernabeu from next year with the Real Madrid jersey. Kylian Mbappé picks up the baton from his national and departmental team-mate Marcus Thuram, and a few hours away from his Euro2024 debut against Austria in Düsseldorf, he relaunches his appeal in view of the transalpine legislative elections, scheduled for 30 June and 7 July. With his white cap pulled down over his forehead, but which does not prevent him from looking his interlocutors straight in the eyes, and his federal shirt a must, Mbappé clearly articulates his words, destined to reverberate in a few days in the ballot boxes and polling stations throughout France.

And to say that after Thuram's declarations, which had explicitly called for the extreme right not to vote, the French Football Federation had asked to avoid a political use of the national team itself. Now Mbappé's broadside, so much for the (supposed and even hypothetical) separation of sport and politics. 'I share the same values as Marcus,' Mbappé immediately clarified, 'of course I agree with him. For me he did not exaggerate, there is freedom of expression. I'm with him'. Then he explained: 'There are priorities. The match with Austria is very important, but the situation in France is even more so. And that is not why we did not prepare the match in the best possible way. One thing does not prevent the other. It's a different situation but we are great players and we have to adapt. We are paid for that. "I am against extremism," Mbappé continued, "we have the chance to choose the future of our country. It is very important. I want to be proud to wear this jersey even after 7 July and not to represent a country that does not correspond to my values'. An allusion to a possible departure from a jersey by which he would no longer feel represented, which opens up scenarios unthinkable and unforeseeable just a week ago.

The stance taken by Mbappé and the national team inevitably triggered political reactions. 'They are prejudiced, think about concentrating on the field,' said Aleksandar Nikolic, MEP and Head of Sport for the Rassemblement National. Marine Le Pen's party spokesman Julien Odoul was also very harsh: 'Did the citizen Marcus Thuram never say a word to express sadness when Thomas, Lola and all the other young victims were massacred by thugs? We are fed up with these privileged people who lecture, who take the French for imbeciles'.

At the press conference in Düsseldorf, to a Didier Deschamps who tried to restore (and maintain...) calm without taking sides, a journalist recalled his controversy in 1996 with Marine Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie, founder of the Front National, who had criticised the national team players for not singing the anthem. That time, the current coach, then midfielder of the Bleus, replied: 'as usual, Le Pen only talks nonsense'. "There, I knew you would bring it up.... - told the author of the question yesterday -; I was then angry with a person who had dared to attack the players head-on. I was the captain and I could not accept it'. But that was not the only clash. In 2008, when Le Pen father himself said that 'France does not fully recognise itself in this team, perhaps because the coach exaggerated the proportion of black players, perhaps he got carried away by his ideological choices'. The coach at the time, Raymond Domenech, replied: 'there are too many str....s in politics, and he is one in particular. The players are proud to wear their jersey and defend the colours of France'. This was followed by the words of Thuram's father, Lilian: 'if you see Jean-Marie Le Pen, tell him that all the players in the national team are proud to be French. Long live France. Not the one he wants. The real one...'.