Kylian Mbappe is the undoubted star player of the France team – and his status was clear to all after their opening goal against Poland in the last 16 of the World Cup.
After a cagey opening from the defending champions on Sunday afternoon, France took the lead just before half-time when Mbappe slipped in Olivier Giroud, who found the bottom corner. The goal was the former Arsenal striker’s 52nd for his country and made him France’s all-time record goalscorer, ahead of the legendary Thierry Henry.
France are captained by Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, but when the team went into a huddle after the Giroud goal, the cameras caught a different player leading the speech. Mbappe is only 23-years-old but already has 63 caps for his country and is clearly a leader amongst Didier Deschamps side.
He was seen gathering his teammates together to give them a quick pep talk. It appeared to have the desired effect, with Mbappe making it 2-0 in the second half with a powerful strike following a sharp counter-attack from France.
The Poland last 16 tie comes after France were beaten 1-0 by Tunisia in their final group game – and perhaps explains Mbappe’s actions.
Knowing his side was already assured of qualification for the knockout stages, Deschamps made nine changes for the Tunisia game. Les Bleus performed poorly in the game, with Wahbi Khazri’s goal enough to earn the north African side a famous result, after Antoine Griezmann’s goal was controversially ruled out by VAR.
Before kick-off at the Al Thumama Stadium in Qatar, former Paris Saint-Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino discussed what it is like working with Mbappe. Pochettino was sacked by PSG in the summer amid reports of difficulties in the dressing room, but the Argentine was full of praise for the young striker.
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“Lovely guy to manage, an amazing talent, he’s so bright,” he said on the BBC. “His mind is unbelievable, very smart, I think we taught him very well provides all the skill he’s showing now…
“No for me it’s not true [rumours surrounding his contract], it’s normal, he’s only 23 and already won the World Cup. He’s an unbelievable player, an unbelievable talent but the problem is sometimes you need to manage yourself.
“We’re talking about the top three, top five players in the world and it’s not easy to manage yourself because inside he’s still a child [young] but he’s doing well and sometimes people talk too much. It’s not like this.”
While Giroud now holds the France goalscoring record, there is little doubt that Mbappe will be chasing him down in the coming years. Going into the Poland tie, the PSG star was on 31 strikes for his country – 21 short of his teammate – but with so many years ahead of him, he is likely to break the record again.
