Kylian Mbappé’s (25) trip to Sweden earlier this week, which coincided with France’s UEFA Nations League encounter against Israel, has sparked controversy. Les Bleus’ captain has now been defended by some of his teammates at international level. 

The France captain was left out of Les Bleus’ squad for the ongoing international break. It came after a thigh injury, which initially was supposed to rule him out of the entirety of the international break. 

However, he recovered to face Lille OSC in the UEFA Champions League on the eve of Didier Deschamps’ squad announcement. Despite his recovery, Mbappé was absent from the squad, with the pretext being recovery from injury. However, that argument lost credit when he started in Real Madrid’s final game before the international break, against Villarreal. 

Fofana on Mbappé controversy – ‘People can do what they want in their free time.’

Despite Deschamps and the president of the FFF, Philippe Diallo, defending the decision not to call up Mbappé, it was already a highly controversial omission. That was before his trip to Sweden. On the night that Les Bleus took on Israel, Mbappé was photographed in Stockholm, with local media reporting that he later spent the night at nightclub ‘V’. 

The fact that the former PSG forward was omitted on the pretext that he was recovering from injury but was then spotted in Sweden, and then later in Corsica, saw even more criticism directed Mbappé’s way. However, speaking in a press conference on Saturday, Wesley Fofana and Mattéo Guendouzi both leapt to his defence. 

“People can do what they want in their free time. He does what he wants. He’s a great guy and a great professional. I find that sometimes, you (the media) go too hard. Ask Mbappé for more information,” said the former. 

Guendouzi struck a similar tone. “They (the media) live off that [controversy] and they will continue to do so. We spoke to him on the phone before the match. He is committed to us, to the France national team,” said the Lazio midfielder. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle