Kylian Mbappe was caught on camera with a face full of thunder after Emiliano Martinez won the Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper award on Monday night.
Both players were in Paris for the awards ceremony to celebrate the best performances of 2022. After winning the World Cup in Qatar, Argentina dominated, with Lionel Messi scooping the top men’s prize and Lionel Scaloni being named coach of the year.
There was also a win for Martinez, who beat Real Madrid ’s Thibaut Courtois and Morocco’s Yassine Bounou to the goalkeeping award. As he was giving his speech the cameras cut to Mbappe, who was sitting next to his Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Messi.
Mbappe perhaps did not know the camera was focusing on him and he could not hide his feelings, with a stony expression on his face. The PSG striker was viciously mocked by Martinez in the wake of Argentina’s World Cup final win to create something of a rivalry between the two.
Although Mbappe scored a hat-trick in the showpiece in Qatar, and netted his shoot-out penalty, Martinez had the last laugh. He then proceeded to rub his victory in Mbappe’s face by asking for a minute’s silence for the France forward in the dressing room and taking a doll with Mbappe’s face on it to the team’s open-top bus parade in Argentina.
Martinez did try to distance himself from his actions later on. Speaking to L’Equipe this month, he said of the doll: “I held it for like two minutes and I threw it away, that’s all. How can I make fun of Mbappe?
“He scored four past me. Four goals in a final! He must think I am his toy baby! I have huge respect for Mbappe.”
Martinez also claimed that he praised Mbappe to his face after the World Cup final. He said: “I told him he should be proud of himself and keep his head high, because he played a fantastic game and that he was one of the best players in the world.”
After returning to PSG duty in December, Mbappe was asked by reporters if he had any response to Martinez. "They are not my problem. I don't have the energy to waste on such futile things,” he said.
"I'll never digest it. But like I told my coach and team-mates, there's no reason that my club should pay for a defeat with my national team, it's two different situations.
"The message was simple – it was to show that, whatever goes on with the national team, PSG is a separate thing and I'm still determined to bring every trophy to the capital."
Mbappe finished second to Messi in the voting for the Best FIFA Men’s Player Award on Monday night. He received 44 votes to Messi’s 52, but still finished ahead of Karim Benzema, Luka Modric and Erling Haaland.
