Ahead of Thursday night’s match against Turkiye, which Kylian Mbappé (27) missed due to a minor muscular injury, the relationship between the captain of the France national team and the recently installed manager, Zinédine Zidane, was called into question.
L’Équipe reported that the pair had failed to establish a working relationship. Mbappé, the report stated, did not agree with his repositioning out on the left during the previous international break, whilst the relationship more broadly was described as “less harmonious” than the one that existed with Zidane’s predecessor, Didier Deschamps.
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Mbappé is set to return for Les Bleus when they face Turkiye in their final UEFA Nations League group game on Sunday night. It is also expected that Mbappé will return to a more familiar No.9 role.
Ahead of the game, Zidane responded to recent reports, which called his relationship with his manager into question. “I don’t understand it, but it doesn’t matter. That’s why I won’t get involved in the debate,” began the France manager before then weighing in on the issue.
“I have the relationship of a manager with his player and it works perfectly. I can’t prevent what is being said but it is nonsense. It is a shame and quite annoying,” added Zidane.
