'It was the racism' - Kylian Mbappe responds to claims he wanted to leave national team after penalty miss
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Updated 19/06/2022 at 13:57 GMT
"Yes finally I explained to him above all well that it was in relation to racism" - Mbappe has said he told Noel La Graet, president of the French Football Federation (FFF), that he wanted to leave the French national team due to racism experienced after his side were knocked out of the tournament. Mbappe missed the crucial penalty in their Round-of-16 defeat to Switzerland.
France striker Kylian Mbappe
Image credit: Getty Images
Kylian Mbappe has said that racism made him want to leave the national team following France's Euro 2020 knockout.
Noel La Graet, president of the French Football Federation (FFF), claimed that Mbappe wanted to leave the side after the FFF failed to defend him from criticism after the forward missed the crucial penalty that saw Les Bleus knocked out of Euro 2020, as well as the frustration of elimination.
"He found that the Federation had not defended him after his missed penalty and the criticism on the networks," Le Graet told French outlet Le Journal du Dimanche.
"We met for five minutes. He was angry, he no longer wanted to play in the France team. You know what it is, he is a winner, he was very frustrated, like all of us, with the elimination."
But Mbappe says it was racism, not the missed penalty or disappointment in defeat, that caused him to assess his future with the national side.
Responding on Twitter to the article, he wrote: "Yes finally I explained to him above all well that it was in relation to racism and NO to the penalty.
"But he considered that there had been no racism."
A FIFA study published on Saturday found that 55 per cent of the players involved in the Euro 2020 and AFCON finals were subject to abuse, with racism the second most common form of abuse.
It found that black players who missed penalties for England were the most abused players in the final between England and Italy.
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