PARIS: France captain Kylian Mbappe said top athletes are still reluctant to speak freely about mental health because they fear being judged, adding that his passion for the game is what keeps him from becoming disillusioned with football.<\/p>\n
In a wide-ranging interview with LEquipe Magazine on Wednesday, the 26-year-old forward spoke candidly about the pressure he faces and the perception that elite players cannot show vulnerability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe complexity is that people struggle with it. You\u2019re not supposed to show it,\u201d Mbappe said, when asked about cyclists such as four-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar acknowledging moments of distress during competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he had said it at the start, he would have been torn apart. But when you win, you are almost untouchable. If you lose a match and say you\u2019re tired, people say its because you played badly. Even if you felt that way before,\u201d Mbappe said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Real Madrid striker, who netted twice in two World Cup qualifying wins against Ukraine and Iceland, said he held himself to the most demanding standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never wanted to accept failure, so I don\u2019t mind if people reproach me for it. I\u2019m very hard on myself, more than most people are, so I\u2019m at peace with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mbappe also highlighted the fine line between public expectation and private emotions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt home, I can say it. Or when the context is right. If I win the World Cup, you come three days later and ask me, I can say it. But after a defeat? People wont accept it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cHonestly, if I didn\u2019t have this passion, football would have disgusted me a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The interview also touched on his career trajectory with France, Paris St-Germain and now Real, but Mbappe insisted the toughest battles are often internal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have the right to lose, to be wrong. But that\u2019s also why people hold you in high esteem because you accept it all, because you stay resilient and always want to win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS: France captain Kylian Mbappe said top athletes are still reluctant to speak freely about mental health because…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-141348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}