Paris Saint Germain and France forward Kylian Mbappe believes the French football body didn’t do enough to protect him after his penalty miss against Switzerland at the just concluded Euro tournament.
Mbappe did apologize for missing the kick on his Instagram account; “I’m sorry about this penalty. I wanted to help the team but I failed,” Mbappe wrote on Instagram after the game.
The FFF president Noël Le Graët in a recent interview this week revealed that Kylian Mbappé and his mother, Fayza Lamari, requested a meeting with him following EURO 2020, with Mbappé upset over the criticism he received via social media following his penalty miss against Switzerland and what he saw as a lack of support from the federation.
“His mother asked me to meet with them after the Euros. I agreed to meet Kylian on his own, because I never meet with families… He was upset by his penalty, his performance and the criticism… I cheered him up, he is an excellent player, an extraordinary French talent that can’t be judged by one missed penalty. Social media was not very kind, he was very upset.”
“Kylian needed to feel our support, to know we were defending him. I think he’s a boy who needs love, but it seems he got it in the neck for many reasons: the missed penalty, his skin colour… It’s true that I didn’t put out a press release, he would have liked me to defend him publicly.”
The President further revealed that he’ll like the Paris born striker to remain with the French capital club.
“I would prefer him to stay [at PSG]… Of course, as a Frenchman, I’d much prefer that PSG keep a French striker with such talent, especially considering the players he will have next to him.”
The Spanish giants recently offered PSG €170m plus €10m to have Mbappe join them.
Mbappé joined PSG from Monaco in 2017, on loan initially and then permanently a year later in a deal valued at €180m. He has scored 133 goals in just 174 games for the club in all competitions.