• With the departures of Lloris, Varane and Benzema, Kylian Mbappé is the natural leader of the France team.
  • This status reinforced by the captain's armband was granted to him by Didier Deschamps at the beginning of the week.
  • A trajectory reminiscent of Cristiano Ronaldo with Portugal and, to a lesser extent, Lionel Messi in Argentina.

Clairefontaine Fashion Week, Monday. Kylian Mbappé is distinguished by his outfit half-Keanu Reeves, half-history teacher, and sunglasses whose usefulness is quickly questioned in view of the ambient greyness. "It's morning," the Paris striker will justify, as if the pitiful defeat of the day before against Rennes had spun him a nasty hangover. Unless it's a way to keep your sight in front of the spotlight constantly on him.

Master of the Parisian project – or what remains of it – here is now Kylian Mbappé crowned with the status of captain of the France team. A logical choice according to Didier Deschamps, asked about the captaincy in "Tout le Sport". "He would fill all the boxes to be at one time or another." But what does not share a part of our readers, some worrying about the media overexposure and its consequences on the ego of the man, who "already has a cougourde instead of the head", as Pierre writes.

On this specific aspect, however, the captaincy appears almost secondary. The person responsible for his new emphasis in Blue is not so much the piece of fabric around the biceps as the wave of departures of illustrious alumni of the dressing room. Hugo Lloris, 121 times captain, Raphael Varane, his natural successor and Karim Benzema, still adored six months earlier, let Kylian Mbappé capture the media and popular attention all alone or almost. List to which we can unofficially add Paul Pogba, one of the few international figures with a media aura powerful enough to serve as an umbrella for the Parisian striker. But, no bowl, the Pioche was dispersed between wounds, family affairs and marabout. That leaves Kylian Mbappé, the superstar.


The images of Kyks' arrival at Clairefontaine, the handshakes of a head of state, the admiration legible in the eyes of the boys of his generation and the youngest, are unequivocal: he is the boss, he whose approval is sought, even if it verges on discomfort (Macron in Doha, Deschamps Monday). And it will now be necessary to get used to eating Kylian Mbappé morning, noon and evening in the team of France. Up to bulimia? Not necessarily.

CR7 and the Selecção, the most similar case

The example by the idol. In Portugal, Corporal Cristiano Ronaldo has been catching Sauron's eye for fifteen years. And apart from the generation of Bernardo Silva and Bruno Fernandes, who are impatient to steal the keys of the daddy truck, "no one has ever really tired of CR7 in the country," believes Portuguese commentator Luis Cristovão. Yet madness has reached unsuspected heights.

First, we can cite the case of the microphone snatched by Ronaldo from a journalist and thrown into a lake in Lyon, before Portugal-Hungary (Euro 2016), then recovered by Portuguese divers employed by the CMTV channel. More recently, sports broadcasts have pushed lip reading to its peak to interpret the exact words of the captain, unhappy with his outing against South Korea at the 2022 World Cup – which he had to justify.



The Mbappé-CR7 comparison holds up for several reasons. The first is age. Ronaldo was 23 years old when he finally inherited the captain's armband of the Selecção (22 for the first time). The second is the departure of a golden generation that eventually propels him to the rank of natural leader.

"It all really started after Euro 2008 for Cristiano," Cristovão said. After Figo's departure in 2006, there are still two years when players like Deco or Nuno Gomes occupy a little space. It was after that that he became the alpha and omega of Portuguese football. For years, it has not only been omnipresent but also essential sportingly. Because he was all alone. »

Almost. In the shadow of the general, there is always a man whose value is underestimated. For CR7, it was Pepe. "It was finally recognized by the public a little late, while it has been so important during all these years," regrets the Lusitano journalist. The way Fernando Santos talked about it during the last World Cup was a good way to pay tribute to him. »

To the right of Mbappe, Didier Deschamps wanted to sit Antoine Griezmann. Provided that the Colchonero, wounded in his flesh, will accept it. His status as vice-captain, however, only formalizes a media and sporting reality: Grizou is not cut to take the light. It is even the drama of his 2018 World Cup, applauded by specialists but little commented by novices. The parallel with Pepe is therefore as much as the one between Kyks and CR7.

Lionel Messi and Argentina, the antithesis

The other case of total leadership within a major selection obviously concerns Lionel Messi. "The total opposite of Kylian Mbappe," says former Nantes and Albiceleste international, Nestor Fabbri. "Mbappé has been adored since a very young age in France, he already has two World Cup finals to his credit, one of which has been won, he already has nothing more to prove in the France team. It is in club and in the Champions League that he is expected. In Paris he annoys, with the Blues he rebels. How many mouths are closed in a World Cup?

"For Messi, it was the opposite for a very long time. People resented him for a long time, they wondered how it was possible to be so good at Barça and not in Argentina. In the land of excess, it is first of all a sporting injustice that has made Messi the most scrutinized man of his selection. Since he earned everything in Europe, he also had to do it in his own country. Was it still his?


Unlike Kylian Mbappé, who has so far always chosen the France – the choice of security, the other would say – the Pulga quickly landed in Spain before melting in, creating a form of distance from the motherland. "There was a time when he was expressing himself much more in the Spanish media than in Argentina," Fabbri recalls. Iberian heart, Argentine jealousy. In 2016, after losing a World Cup final and a Copa America final, criticism dripping with bitterness rained down on him. Especially since the eternal rival has just unlocked his counter with Portugal. Exhausted, the Argentine will hang up temporarily.

For me, says the former L1 player, it is the founding act of his leadership with the Albiceleste. From there, the public pushed for his return and from that moment on, he really took charge of the team. What has changed is the recognition of the Argentine public. From his return, he became a total leader. »

To the point of surprising us, in Doha. After the humiliating defeat against Saudi Arabia, Lionel Messi had taken responsibility for taking lightning in the mixed zone in place of all his teammates, who had left the Lusail stadium, head down, in single file. Never seen before. Fifty, maybe a hundred journalists crammed against a fence, including a good handful of angry Argentines eager for explanations and us in the middle. "Before, he wouldn't have done that. But since the victory in the Copa America, he has come a lot closer to Argentina in the media, he expresses himself a little more to the press. It has matured, quite simply. »

It's up to Mbappé to do the same. Because behind an early maturity of facade still hide some uncontrolled media releases and a love of the passive-aggressive to cringe. Post-defeat style postures at Euro 2021 will no longer be allowed by a new status that will lead him to express himself more. Even if it is not yet said that Didier Deschamps drags to each press conference a boy with a highly flammable word, unlike a Lloris whose lukewarmness guaranteed peace and prosperity. The best way to protect Mbappé from the light is probably to give him a little shade at first. Because sunglasses are not always enough.

  • Sport
  • Kylian Mbappé
  • Cristiano Ronaldo
  • Lionel Messi
  • France national football team
  • Football