Mbappé was joined by several other French stars.
Kylian Mbappé is one of many French stars to publicly come out in support of Zinedine Zidane after France’s football federation (FFF) president, Noël Le Graët said he wouldn’t ever appoint him as head coach of the national team.
The FFF announced that Didier Deschamps had been given a contract extension after leading France to back-to-back World Cup finals, where they were unable to defend their crown this time, losing to Argentina in Qatar.
Zidane has been heavily linked with the role and was the favourite to take over if Deschamps stepped aside, but it appears that Le Graët has other ideas.
“I know very well that Zidane was always on the radar. He had a lot of supporters; some were waiting for Deschamps’s departure. But who can make serious reproaches to Deschamps? Nobody,” he told RMC.
“He [Zidane] does what he wants; it’s none of my business. I’ve never met him, we’ve never considered parting with Didier. He can go where he wants, to a club … If Zidane tried to contact me? Certainly not, I wouldn’t even pick up the phone.”
💥 Noël Le Graët se lâche sur Zidane dans Bartoli Time sur RMC : "Zidane au Brésil ? J'en ai rien à secouer. Il fait ce qu'il veut, ça ne me regarde pas. Je ne l'ai jamais rencontré. On n'a jamais envisagé de se séparer de Didier." pic.twitter.com/odyOBSQpHF
— RMC Sport (@RMCsport) January 8, 2023
Le Graët’s comments haven’t sat well with many of the current and former French national team players and some have taken to social media to voice their disapproval at the “disrespectful” comments.
Mbappé is one of those. He said: “Zidane is France, we don’t disrespect the legend like that..”
Zidane c’est la France, on manque pas de respect à la légende comme ça… 🤦🏽♂️
— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) January 8, 2023
France’s minister for sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, was another who called out the FFF president’s comments.
“Yet more out-of-touch comments and on top of that a shameful lack of respect, which hurts us all, towards a legend of football and sport,” she tweeted.
Déclarations à nouveau hors sol avec en prime cette fois un manque de respect honteux, qui nous heurte tous, à une légende du foot et du sport : un "président" de la première fédération sportive de France ne devrait pas dire ça.
Des excuses pour ce mot de trop sur Z.Zidane svp. https://t.co/FUdE76nBz0— Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (@AOC1978) January 8, 2023
Real Madrid also came out in defiant support of their former player and manager – who made history by becoming the first coach to win the Champions League three times in a row with Los Blancos.
Madrid said that the “remarks show a lack of respect for one of the most admired figures by football fans around the world” and that they want an “immediate correction”.
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