Kylian Mbappe is not happy with recent statements from Olivier Giroud. After last Tuesday’s friendly match against Bulgaria (3-0 win), Giroud, who scored twice, said that he was not played enough by his teammates. He didn’t name names, but Mbappe was touched by his teammate’s words. The 22-year-old attacker finds it disappointing that Giroud publicly expressed his grievances.
Giroud initially started on the bench against Bulgaria, but came on after 41 minutes as a replacement for the injured Karim Benzema. The Chelsea striker scored two goals in the final phase, allowing France to work towards the European Championship with a 3-0 win. Thursday reported L’Equipe that Mbappe was so angry by the statements that he wanted to appear at the press conference afterwards to respond to the Chelsea striker. National coach Didier Deschamps would have prevented him from speaking out publicly about Giroud, but he has now done so.
“It’s not about what he said,” Mbappe told the French press. “To be honest, I don’t care what he said. I’m a striker and it’s his personal opinion. It doesn’t affect me. As a striker I know the feeling that you are not being served. I have that feeling 365 times a game. It’s more about being said in public.” Mbappe would have preferred to hear Giroud’s criticism in person in the dressing room. “I congratulated him in the locker room on his goal. He didn’t say anything about it then, then I heard it through the press. He didn’t say anything that is unacceptable. He is a striker and wants to score goals. He is close to a goal. record (Giroud is five goals away from all-time top scorer Thierry Henry, ed.) And as a striker that gets in your head, whether you like it or not.”
“If he could have scored one more time, he would have,” said Mbappe. “But to say it in public… I would rather he had come to me and spoke out in the dressing room. We’ve known each other for a long time. You (the media, ed.) know how I am in the dressing room “If I have something to say to someone, I will. Then it stays in the locker room. In the end it’s not a big problem. It’s small things. I don’t want our preparation, which started well with good matches, to become negative The team can’t use that. We have difficult games ahead of us and we should not create problems for ourselves.” France will face Germany on Tuesday.
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