The president of the French Federation, Noel Le Grat, summarized the World Cup today (Sunday) in an interview with the French “RMC”. Le Grat referred extensively to the Karim Benzema storm and everything related to Zinedine Zidane, who, according to international reports, refused the national teams because he only wants to coach the tricolor.
Le Grat was not impressed by Zidane, who won the Champions League 3 times as a coach and led the team to win the 1998 World Cup as a player: “Even if he called me I wouldn’t answer. I would be surprised if he came to Brazil, we never met and I never thought of another coach instead Didier Deschamps. Zidane can do what he wants, he didn’t contact me at any point.”
Le Grat He referred to the contract extension of Didier Deschamps, the 2018 world champion and who lost in the last final: “He signed a contract extension for 3.5 years, the Euro is coming. I know he wants to continue.”
Later, Le Grat also spoke about Karim Benzema, the Ballon d’Or winner who was injured before the World Cup and did not play with the national team: “Unfortunately, he left after a great year, he was injured in training. I don’t care what his entourage says, they did the right thing. We started and finished the World Cup With 14 players and he only continued training after the World Cup was over. It’s a shame he didn’t play, but maybe without the injury we wouldn’t have gotten so much from Olivier Giroud.”
A (perhaps implicit) response to Le Grat’s words came from the direction of Kylian Mbappe. The star of the French national team, who is very close to Zidane personally, wrote on his Twitter account: “Zidane is France, you don’t underestimate the dignity of a legend in this way.” This tweet to more than half a million views in a few minutes, with more than five thousand likes.
Zidane is France, we don’t disrespect the legend like that… ????????♂️
— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) January 8, 2023