{"id":494441,"date":"2026-06-15T21:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/494441\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T21:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:11:09","slug":"kylian-is-kylian-deschamps-happy-to-shield-mbappe-amid-political-scrutiny-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/494441\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Kylian is Kylian\u2019: Deschamps happy to shield Mbapp\u00e9 amid political scrutiny | France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since France arrived at their World Cup base in Boston last week they have been a regular source of fascination for locals. Crowds of mostly young people have formed outside Les Bleus\u2019 downtown hotel to cheer the team as they leave for training. All the players are met with pleas for waves and autographs, but the roar that meets Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> is of a different order altogether.<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9 is one of a small number of contemporary footballers whose names have cut through with the US public (though he is not yet a mononym, unlike Messi<\/a>). As France begin their quest for a third World Cup he is inevitably the focus back home too, not least after giving an interview to Le Parisien at the weekend in which he denied ambitions of one day becoming president of France, saying: \u201cI\u2019m hated enough as it is!\u201d<\/p>\n

A player profile of the France forward and captain Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 ahead of the 2026 World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n

For Didier Deschamps, the question of how to handle the Mbapp\u00e9 phenomenon is one of many that require striking a delicate balance<\/a>. Fortunately, the 57-year-old has some experience in the demands and contradictions of leading a top international team. Speaking on the eve of their Group I opener against Senegal, with all the extra distractions of 2002 and all that<\/a>, the French head coach was set on turning down the temperature.<\/p>\n

Deschamps has been steadfast in his support<\/a> for his captain in the buildup to the tournament as Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s public opposition to far-right politics<\/a> in France has led to criticism from figures such as Michel Platini. Mbapp\u00e9 was not present at France\u2019s pre-match press conference, with N\u2019Golo Kant\u00e9 speaking instead. Deschamps denied this had anything to do with any public remarks or controversy, but also said: \u201cMy priority is to protect my players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 has unsurprisingly been the main attraction for the selfie- and autograph-hunters at France\u2019s hotel in Boston. Photograph: Baptiste Fernandez\/IconSport-FR\/ZUMA Press\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Asked whether the extent of Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s fame meant he had to take a different approach to managing him, Deschamps did not demur. \u201cI speak to [Mbapp\u00e9] very often and he\u2019s a world-famous player even in the US but it\u2019s his life,\u201d he said. \u201cHe manages himself. Kylian is Kylian. The younger generation, the less younger, love him everywhere in the world, but that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s not normal when he plays and when he\u2019s in the group. This has got nothing to do with why he is not here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only four members of the squad that won the World Cup<\/a> in 2018 remain, Mbapp\u00e9 and Kant\u00e9 among them. Another is the reigning Ballon d\u2019Or, Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, who is also the focus of pre-tournament expectations, with the hope he can bring his club form to the international stage, where he has seven goals from 59 caps. Here, the messaging from Deschamps is different, as he chose to lower any pressure on the Paris Saint-Germain forward. \u201cOusmane is concerned and concentrated like all the other players, but there clearly is a desire to be very good and to be decisive, just like he is regularly with his club, PSG,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 has been given extra time to recover from last month\u2019s Champions League final<\/a>, with Deschamps adding intriguingly that his place in the team against Senegal would be dependent on \u201cphysical and probably more importantly psychological\u201d considerations. \u201cIf he\u2019s at his top level it will be a plus for the French squad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

All the individual deflections add up to a cumulative approach from Deschamps as he enters his final tournament as French head coach: he wants to dial down any suggestions that his team are the favourites to win this World Cup. \u201cFrance has the ability to win \u2026 but so do six or seven other nations,\u201d he said. \u201cThe way there is going to be hard. Of course, France<\/a> has high-level potential because of the results it has produced over the last two World Cups. We\u2019ve also got many high-quality players for whom this will be their first World Cup. And so I don\u2019t want to paint the French squad as better than the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deschamps eventually left the bowels of the New York New Jersey Stadium looking relaxed, and feigned shock when told in parting that his training session that afternoon would be, briefly, open to the media. Much of his team may not have seen anything like this World Cup before, but the coach and his key lieutenants are accustomed to the scrutiny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since France arrived at their World Cup base in Boston last week they have been a regular source…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-494441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}