France – Scotland: Mbappé still absent from the Blues’ match eve press conference

2023-10-16 16:41:48

We will have to wait until at least November 17 in Nice, on the eve of France – Gibraltar in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, to imagine Kylian Mbappé appearing in front of the media before a meeting of the Blues. As before the last matches against Germany and the Netherlands, the captain of the Blues will not speak alongside Didier Deschamps, this Monday, at 24h of France – Scotland in a friendly. His last public speech dates back to the pre-match against… Gibraltar, on June 15.

We only heard it very quickly at half-time between Rennes and PSG, on Sunday October 8. Luis Enrique’s men then led the score after the achievements of Vitinha and Achraf Hakimi. “It’s that at half-time, we’re winning 2-0, that’s very good, now we have to win the match. (…) We will try to do everything to win this match,” he briefly indicated on Prime Video.

According to our information, Mbappé had decided not to speak out as part of the France team until qualification for Euro 2024 was mathematically assured, which is now the case. During the previous rally, at the beginning of September, he explained to some of his tricolor relays that his presence at a press conference would confuse the message. The PSG striker knew, then, that he would above all have been questioned about his contract, his summer marked by a temporary sidelining at club, Real Madrid…

To replace him, Mike Maignan, the former Lille player (2015-2021), will answer questions from journalists this Monday from 5 p.m. at the Décathlon Arena Stade Pierre Mauroy. Before him Antoine Griezmann, the Blues midfielder had faced the media in September before Ireland, then Germany. Against the Netherlands, it was Aurélien Tchouameni’s turn to take part in the traditional question-and-answer session on October 12.

If the appearance of the captain of the Blues in front of the media is a habit and has notably been the case in the past with Hugo Lloris, it has never been an obligation. Kylian Mbappé had also warned as soon as his captaincy was announced that he would not be present at all press conferences.