Kylian Mbappe on pressure, money, and resilience
"I don’t have the right to fail, I know I have to win: but it’s also for this reason that I am held in such high regard."
Kylian Mbappé opens up: with a season that started at the top in Spain, the French champion reflects on his 10 years as a professional footballer, marked by many highlights, some shadows, difficult farewells, and new adventures to embrace, CE Report quotes ANSA.
The Real Madrid star says he is “more demanding on myself than most people. I have never wanted to accept failure, so I don’t mind when people criticize me for it. I approach everything very calmly. And you are considered highly also because you accept all this, you are resilient, and you always want to win,” he told French newspaper L’Equipe in a long interview.
Regarding money, it can have a destructive power:
“The more you have, the more problems you have. You are no longer the same. You have responsibilities, commitments, work, and accounts to manage. If someone accompanies you along the way, it’s a beautiful story. It’s nice to grow, reach the top, with the same family and a base of trust. But sometimes it doesn’t work, and you have to know how to say it. This doesn’t mean the bond is broken, but that the relationship doesn’t work. It’s harder to say than to do, and it’s a problem many athletes and personalities face. I’m fatalistic about the world of football, but not about life. Life is magnificent. Football is what it is. I like to say that people who go to the stadium are lucky to come just to see a show and not know what happens behind the scenes. Honestly, if I didn’t have this passion, the football world would have disgusted me a long time ago.”
About huge earnings and fame:
“I was lucky to earn a lot of money, but I’ve never felt like a king. Having free rein. Being told yes to everything. When you have to say no, you must say no. My family says ‘no’ more than ‘yes.’”
Thinking about the future, does he imagine children who might not love football?
“I hope so, but I think they would always have a ball nearby,” says Mbappé. “In any case, I would never advise my son to get close to football. Cry? Only when I’m injured. I imagine that defeats, in one way or another, we deserve. But nobody deserves an injury. The last time I almost cried for football was when we lost with PSG against Manchester City, in the second leg of the 2021 Champions League semi-final. I wasn’t playing. I almost cried then because I felt useless.”
About France:
“It’s the most talented team. The strongest? Not yet. But the one with the greatest potential. In every position, they have starters from the best clubs in the world. But as a team, we are not yet stronger than the national team that won the 2018 World Cup or the one that reached the 2022 final.”
Zidane as the next coach?
“If it’s him, fine; if someone else, also fine,” Mbappé concludes. “But he’s the only one in the history of French football to have almost all the rights.”
