Captain Mbappé leads Les Bleus
24-year-old Kylian Mbappé was selected as the French national team captain ahead of their Euro 2024 qualifiers, starting with their game vs Holland today.
Kylian Mbappé is just 24 years old, but quickly became a star after arising on the scene for PSG and France. Now, he’s captaining the French national team, one of the youngest players to ever do so.
Mbappé wants to bring French team together
In their first game since losing the 2022 World Cup final to Argentina, Mbappé looks to unify the French squad. They start their Euro 2024 qualifying quest with a game against the Netherlands today at 3:45 p.m. ET.
Check out how to watch France vs the Netherlands Euro 2024 qualifier.
“There are some fundamentals to being a captain that are impossible to change,” said Mbappé. “It depends on the personality of each person. I think I will be a captain who turns to others. I don’t have much experience in captaincy and I know we have important players on the team.”
“I do not want to decide, to impose, I want to give others the opportunity to express themselves,” he continued. “I think we are a united group. We showed in our great performances that when we were all together and everyone had their place, we were capable of doing great things. I think it would be a mistake to disrupt that.”
Mbappé has now scored 36 goals for France and is on track to break Olivier Giroud’s record as France’s top goalscorer with 53 goals. He scored a hat trick in the World Cup final, one of only two players to ever do so. Despite being one of the best on the team and now the captain, Mbappé is determined to not “create a gap” between he and the other players. He has made his intentions as captain quite clear: to focus on a unified goal.
“It’s a great joy. I’m the captain of my country. That’s something you can’t avoid,” said Mbappé. “Afterwards, of course, when you let go of this joy, this emotion, it’s a new responsibility.”
“It’s not going to change the way I play. It will change the way I behave, perhaps, because I must be even more focused on others. But I’m going to face this challenge with a lot of goodwill and positivity.”